Confronting Temptation
by EarthsTrueGreen
Summary: After falling in love with Scorpius six years ago, Rose finds herself exactly where she wants her life to be, good job, better friends, and a nonexistent love life. That is until destiny swoops in to rattle her world again. When Scorpius unexpectedly walks back into her life, she is reluctant to feel for him again, even though the temptation lingers. Sequel to FIGHTING TEMPTATION
1. Six Years From Together

**Chapter 1**

Rose stood still, as she propped herself against the brick wall that belonged to the abandoned warehouse, occasionally peeping her head up to see the cars as they buzzed by on the busy New York street.

It was always the moment before a big catch that was the most exciting for Rose, the pace of her heart racing her palms sweaty, the pure adrenalin that came from it. Rose breathed as she looked to her left, noticing as the brown haired man, Matt Carter, was crouched down behind several large trash cans peering through a slight gap between two. He watched while Don Fletcher innocently talked to a young muggle man who had been in the back of the warehouse waiting for Fletcher's shipment to arrive, needless to say the muggle was under the power of the imperious curse. Focusing his eyes back to Rose, he stared as she raised her fingers to her swoop some of her red bangs to the side, indicating that it was almost time.

Rose and Matt had been on Don Fletcher's trail close to four months now, they knew that he was a dark wizard but he was smart. He used muggles to do his dirty work, because to him they were invaluable and rarely traced by the ministry. The auror department knew that he was guilty, but they had to catch him in possession of the dark artifacts before they could take him into custody, something which was proving impossible to do.

That was until six weeks ago when Rose was caught following Fletcher by one of his minions. Rose was sure that they were busted, but in a stroke of genius she was able to convince the man that she was following Fletcher because she knew how to help him avoid the Ministry, saying that she had a brother who worked as an auror and could easily get information from. If Fletcher seemed suspicious at first he hide it well, and it was only a matter of weeks that Rose provided loads of tainted information from the ministry about the time and locations of shipments. Proving herself to be one of Fletchers most valuable minions working her way up the Dark Wizard food chain.

All was good, except for Rose, who was seriously starting to miss the warm comfy feeling of her own bed at night, had been forced to stay at Fletcher's home all the time.

Rose looked to the side again watching as the muggle man walked out of the ally with a confused look on his face. She carefully followed her eyes to the general direction of Matt, giving the slightest raise of eyebrow, indicating that he should get ready to run.

Until now Fletcher had sent only his men to retrieve the artifacts, not actually being there himself. However with the security that Rose had intentionally lead Fletcher to feel, his mind began to become a little full of himself, believing that he was untouchable. That was when Rose decided to make her move. She had convinced him that a shipment was coming in today that contained artifacts so valuable that he couldn't risk the chance of one of his men becoming a little too greedy.

She knew that she was probably flicking the wand a little too soon, but she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold out before he started to question her feelings in the relationship. Fletcher couldn't have been more than twenty eight, and he wasn't ugly, Rose already knew that he was curious as to why she would only let him kiss her on the cheek or why she insisted that she sleep on the couch, she played innocence well, but innocence could only take her so far.

"Carrie," she heard the man say, looking up to the fake name she smiled.

"Is it as good as I said it would be?" she asked in a fake American accent.

Fletcher ran to her and picking her up and swinging her around "So much better," he said holding her tight. Rose looked at Matt with annoyed eyes nodding her head now.

Quickly Rose raised her knee in between Fletcher's groin, causing him to drop her, turning around with a shocked look on his face, he saw as Matt came running toward them his wand out and armed. Raising his hand quickly Fletcher flung the trash cans in front of Matt's path turning on Rose.

Rose had her own wand in a fighting stance, as she gave an evil smirk, flicking her wrist, and watching as green spark shot towards the man, in attempt to knock him out. Ducking, Fletcher pulled out a large black rock letting drop to the ground and zapping it with his wand. A thick cloud of acid smoke began to fill the air. Rose and Matt quickly held their breath as Fletcher began swing his wand into any direction. The ground was starting to shake as large amounts of cement came flying off the building, and crashing to the ground.

Pushing through the dark mass, Matt grabbed Roses arm tugging her to follow him, sensing that Fletcher wasn't one to actually fight, but to run. There was a sliver of a second where they saw Fletcher turn the corner out of the ally, running directly onto the main side walk.

Chasing after him they had to be careful, they rushed past muggles who had confused and annoyed looks on their faces. Matt noticing that Fletcher was gripping his rather wand tightly to his side, "I think he's going to apparate," Matt said quickly getting his own wand ready.

"Matt," Rose said sternly, attempting to remind him that there were a ton of muggles around.

But it did little good, because the second that Fletcher apparated Matt looked up to the flash of light, that came from the fourth story window of another warehouse. Quickly Matt waved his exposed wand to follow Fletcher's trail.

Rose stood still, examining the horrified looks on the muggle's faces. Giving, what could only be considered an extremely awkward smile she slipped behind the building as discreetly as possible. Pulling down the fire escape ladder and starting to climb, her wand clamped between her teeth.

Blasting the lock off of the security panel door, Matt and Fletcher were already in a knockdown, drag out fight. Matt, whose nose was slightly tilted in an awkward direction, had Fletcher's head in his arms, squeezing it tightly so that Fletcher's face was the shade of her old school colors.

Fletcher weakly held onto his wand shaking it so a large net came flying out, entangling Matt. Fletcher must not have noticed Rose because the second that Matt's choke hole was lifted, he darted straight for the door.

Rose ran taking a large leap as she clung onto Fletchers back jabbing a finger in to his eye.

He began to shake wildly, forcing Rose to grasp on tighter. She felt Fletcher start to spin, slamming her against the wall, forcing the back of her head to smack the bricks hard enough to make a cracking sound, so sickening that it almost caused Rose to scream. Fletcher pushed the weight of his body against her, feeling as the abnormal strength in her arms was starting to weaken, and knock the breath out of her, but she refused to let go.

Matt finally free from the enchanted net, raised his wand watching as a large ball came speeding toward Fletcher, hitting him directly in the stomach forcing him to fall to his knees in pain.

Rose breathed deeply, rubbing her ribs noting the broken one on the left side. She hadn't expected for Fletcher to be such a challenge. Closing her eyes, she knew that Fletcher wasn't going anywhere from the strength of Matt's blaster curse.

"You alright?" Matt asked as he bent over Fletcher confiscating his wand and tightening the charmed handcuffs around his wrist, rendering the man powerless.

"I'm fine," Rose gasped opening her eyes, "What would make you think that I wasn't?"

"Well you are bleeding," Matt stated loudly.

Rose straightened her posture, her body rigid, almost a hundred percent certain that she knew where the blood was coming from. Slowly she raised her fingers to back of her head, feeling through the sticky strands of hair, where the warm blood was seeping out of the two folds of the scar she had gotten eight years ago.

Bringing her fingers down, she looked at the bright red blood staining the tips, raising her eye at Matt she asked "He's cuffed right?"

"Yeah, why?" Matt asked more concerned for Rose's health than Fletcher's ability to escape.

"No reason," Rose said sweetly, walking over to Fletcher and proceeding to kick him repeatedly in the stomach.

"That" she yelled "is for making me bleed." She watched as the man huddled over in more pain. Kicking him one more time in the gut, he groaned "And that's for reminding me of how I got that scar!"

"You bitch," Fletcher spat.

"I've been called worse." Rose stated tugging on the man to stand up, so they could take him to the auror office.

Matt looked at her "Everything good?"

"Everything's brilliant." She stated, leaving out the fact that the only times that scar bled, meant that her life was about to spin out of control.

* * *

Rose stared at the wall, _just a few more seconds,_ she thought as the beads of sweat pooled on her forehead. She continued to run her eyes fixed directly on the wall, where a picture of her parent's sat neatly in a frame.

She looked down at the stop watch on her tread mill, the numbers slowly counting down, from five, to four, to three, to two, and finally to one. Ripping the safety cored out of its location she felt the treadmill slow and her body along with it. Taking deep breaths, she pulled the towel off the handle bar and began to blot herself with it.

Hopping off of the machine, she opened the bedroom door to her New York apartment. Walking to her kitchen she went to the refrigerator door, glancing around in it, making a mental note of the single egg, the bottle of water, and the carton of milk that was about a quarter full. In fact the more she thought about it she wasn't entirely sure how the egg got into her fridge, because eggs required cooking and she wouldn't have been senseless enough to buy something that actually needed cooking.

Grabbing the bottle of water, Rose slowly shut the door, only to be scared half to death by the figure that was standing on the other side of it. "Damn it Matt," She said to the tall man, who had a playful smirk on his face, only wearing the jeans that he had on last night, showing off his masculine build as he laughed.

"That's not funny." She said slapping the side of his arm, then walking around him to take a seat at the breakfast bar.

"I thought it was pretty funny," he mumbled, opening the fridge and grabbing the carton of milk.

"You know I'm going to start charging you rent if you keep staying over here like this," Matt laughed again louder, as he pulled out a bowl and some cereal from the pantry.

"You wouldn't do that to me," he said innocently. "I'm your partner."

"Better reason to," she said crossing her arms, "After the hell you put me through yesterday, I should charge you double."

Picking up his bowl of cereal he walked to the breakfast bar leaning his elbows on it facing Rose "I have saved your skinny little ass on several occasions,"

Rose rolled her eyes taking another sip of water, still not entirely forgiving "Yeah but you screwed up yesterday and now I have to spend my morning, with you, getting lectured by Cornell."

"If I hadn't apparated then that scumbag of a dark wizard would have gotten away, I didn't have a choice." Matt said defensively.

"I know, and let's just hope that Cornell will be willing to understand."

"There weren't that many muggles around,"

"Five is enough." Rose argued laying her towel on the bar.

Matt opened his mouth to take another large bite of cereal "Speaking of partners, you never finished telling me how you got that massive cut on your head."

"It's nothing," Rose said slowly, instinctively raising her hand to the tender area of skin. "I promise."

Matt was about to say something when, "Has any one seen my…" a female voice trailed off "Never mind I found it." The girl walked into the kitchen wearing what looked to be the shirt that Matt had on last night, along with a pair of shorts. "Good morning," she said brightly flipping her bright blond hair out of her face.

"Carla, seriously making me see him every day during work isn't enough, now you're forcing me to be around him in my free time as well." Rose said sarcastically.

"That's right," Carla's sweet voice sang, as she gave Matt the slightest peck on the cheek. Matt gave a smug look to Rose, knowing that she was joking. The two years before Matt and Carla had started dating; he was prone to crashing on her couch for weeks at a time, despising his own apartment, only going there to collect his mail, and make sure that the maid didn't steal anything that his mother would deem valuable, which was just about everything. Other than that, he was a permanent resident at Rose's, and she loved to give him crap about it, but Matt knew his partner, and she honestly couldn't have cared. In fact the one time he seriously offered to start paying rent, Rose looked him dead in the eye and asked _why? _As if it was the stupidest question she had ever heard in her life.

The expression falling from his face, the thoughts from the previous conversation coming to mind "Hey, don't change the subject," Matt said a little harshly to Rose.

"What's the big deal?" Rose asked innocently.

"The big deal is that we have been partners for nearly three years now and you never once bothered to tell me that you have this huge cut on your scalp before." Matt looked to Carla "Did you know about that scar?" he asked.

Carla got a weird look on her face "Scar, what scar?"

"She has this huge scar on the back of her head, go look at it," Matt stated.

Carla looked to see if Rose minded, before she walked over to her and slightly moved her hair out of the way to reveal the long bright pink strike of skin that ran along the back of her scalp. "Oh my word that thing is huge,"

"I know, and as her partner I feel that I should have known about it." He argued.

Rose couldn't exactly counter back, she knew the story behind every scar, every broken bone, and every lose tooth on Matt's body, and it would only be fair for him to question why he knew so little. "I'm sorry," she said sheepishly.

"Don't be sorry, I just want to know how you got it,"

"Yeah I'm curious too, I mean what could leave a scar that long." Carla added.

"It's nothing I promise. When I was fifteen I got into an argument with someone, and as a result I was flung into a mirror." She said casually.

Carla and Matt looked at each other "She says this as if it was no big deal."

Rose smiled, in all honesty compared to all of the injuries that she had had that scar wasn't a big deal, but she kept her mouth shut, "Like I said it was a long time ago and I until yesterday I had honestly forgotten about it."

"Someone must have really hated you if they were mad enough to fling you into a mirror." Carla said

"Yes he did," Rose almost whispered, her mind lost for a minute, shaking her head of the memory she smiled "Speaking of hating me, do you?"

Carla laughed knowing where this was going. "So I'm assuming that your date didn't go as well as I had hoped," She paused "Noticed that you came home earlier than I had thought you would."

"Well you know, when a guy randomly shows up to take me out on the first night that I have been home in six weeks, my first instinct isn't exactly to sleep with them."

Carla's face scrunched up, "And what was wrong with Chris? He is such a cutie pie." Her southern roots peeking through during the last sentence.

"Well for starters he is boring."

Matt nearly choked on his cereal from laughing so hard "I told you she would hate him."

"Excuse me if I think I know my best friend better than you do." Carla stated.

Rose and Matt only stared at Carla with a deadpanned expression. Carla did know Rose pretty well and Rose loved her but, there was a bond between auror partners that couldn't be broken, your auror partner is forced to get to know you better than anyone else, because you have to trust them with your life.

Rose and Matt Carter were first paired up together when Rose came to New York three years ago. She still worked as an auror of foreign communications, filling in auror positions for different auror departments until they found someone to take the position permanently. She honestly loved that job, it gave her the chance to travel and see the world, however when she arrived in New York and she was partnered with Matt, something felt different. To her New York was the first place that she had ever even remotely considered to actually stay in, and as the days became months and her and Matt's partnership began to form into a true bond of trust and loyalty to one another, she couldn't even consider saying no when the head auror offered her the position permanently. Which Matt was over the moon about. "Oh don't give me that look." Carla said annoyed as she opened the fridge.

"I told you she's a prude," Matt responded. Rose raised an eyebrow crossing her arms "What it's true," he shrugged. Thinking he added "Have you ever even been in a serious relationship before?"

Rose smirked but didn't respond. Carla quickly shutting the fridge door asked "Where did the egg come from?"

"I've been trying to figure that out as well," Rose said slightly grateful for the change of subject, Rose's romantic life was a dead and largely debated subject among her friends, it was also a subject that she kept quiet about.

"I put it there." Matt said, getting two very confused looks from the girls. "What I like eggs," he stated as if that should make sense.

"But you can't microwave them," Carla stated

"Or eat them directly out of the box." Rose added

Matt leaned forward toward the direction of the girls "You know there's this thing called a stove, and it came with the apartment," he pointed his finger to the nice, unused stove that sat in between two counters.

Rose pretended to get a dumbfound look on her face "Is that what that bloody thing is for?" She gave a look to Carla, "Did you know that that thing was meant for cooking."

Carla walked over to Rose "I had no idea I thought that it was meant for storing shoes."

"Merlin," Matt mumbled, shaking his head "The things I put up with from you two,"

"Oh, but it's worth it," Carla said in an almost seductive tone, as she walked over to Matt and wrapped her arms around his waist, lightly kissing his back.

"Yes it is," Matt said weakly as he turned around and started to kiss Carla on the lips.

"That's my cue to go get ready for work," Rose said eager to get out of the room. "You know you two might want to consider doing the same thing, if you don't want to be late," she added closing the door to her bedroom behind her.

* * *

They walked to the abandoned looking police station, it wasn't safe to apparate in the city, because one never knew when someone might be around, and they couldn't risk exposure.

Walking into the run down building the inside was nice. The first floor being the lobby, Rose quickly walked by, paying attention to the fact that Matt had let go of Carla's hand and tensed up the slightest bit, he was worried about yesterday, they both were.

"We're going to be fine." Rose assured Matt as they made their way up the stairs to the largely populated room with maroon walls, wooden floors, and desk scattered around it.

"Weasley. Carter." She heard a voice yell before she even had a moment to lay her belongs on top of the desk. Rose sighed, Cornell wasn't a very pleasant man, if he said nothing at all it meant that he was pleased with the job someone had done.

Turning around, Rose watched as the middle aged, balding man glared at them through his office window. One wouldn't know it from looking at him, but he had actually been in the battle of Hogwarts, it didn't matter where a wizard was from. Many aurors traveled from all over the world to help defend the Wizarding community, and apparently Cornell had been impressive enough that his boss had promoted him to Captain of the New York department.

Rose took a deep breath and looked to Carla who mouthed "Good Luck," as she made her way to her own desk.

Rose lifted her head in confidence as she followed Matt into the office. Cornell had his back turned to them, as he stared out of his window onto the busy streets of the city.

"Sit down." The man spat, waving his wand for the door to slam shut behind them. From the back Rose could tell that his arms were crossed and his face was a bright red color. Slowly taking a seat they waited. The office was very grey, meant to intimidate, and it did the job well.

"Do you know the predicament that you have put me in?" the man enunciated each word carefully, to make sure that it couldn't be mistaken for something else, still not turning around.

Rose looked at Matt, his head bent towards the direction of the ground. She knew that what he had done was serious, however it was only a few muggles, and their memories could easily be altered, so she wasn't sure why Cornell was so worked up.

The man turned around with a hard look on his face and a file in his hand "Tell me something Carter, what was the first thing that you were taught when you started school?"

"Don't be seen," Matt said sheepishly.

Cornell leaned forward, the rage still plastered on his face "What was that? I didn't hear you."

"Don't be seen," Matt said again louder.

Cornell nodded his head "I thought that's what you said, so it is beyond me why you would intentionally apparate in front of muggles."

"Sir if I hadn't then…" but he was cut off by a file being slammed onto the desk in front of him, "Take a look at page two Carter."

Matt slid the folder to him as he timidly opened it, he wasn't sure why but something felt different. He had been in trouble before but the fact that Cornell still couldn't look him in the eye meant that this was more serious than he had thought. Reading the report on page two he heard Cornell say "You better be happy that you caught the guy, because my higher ups are pushing me to fire you."

The large man took a seat at his desk, his mustache fuming. Rose cleared her throat slightly confused "Excuse me Sir, but I'm not sure exactly what's going on, were the muggles memories not modified?" she questioned.

Cornell gave a slight huff in the direction of Carter "A muggle saw Fletcher apparate first, so he pulled out a cell phone and recorded me apparating after him," Matt answered closing the file. "The video went viral last night on a local news station." He finished.

Rose's jaw dropped, "What does this mean?" she asked slowly knowing that this was going to have some serious consequences.

"For starters suspension from the field for you Carter." Cornell said straightening his posture.

"Sir you can't be…" But Matt was cut off.

"We can modify a few muggles memories, however there is no telling how many people have seen that video by now, it's all over the internet." Cornell shook his head "Suspension from the field was the only way I could prevent from not firing you."

"For how long?" Rose asked, concerned about what this meant for her career.

"How does indefinitely sound?" Cornell asked raising an eyebrow. "For the time being it is too risky to take the chance of Carter being seen doing anything involving magic, until this blows over he will be on paper work duty." Matt groaned loudly "Well you shouldn't have been stupid enough to apparate in front of Muggles." Cornell stated "As for you Weasley I have put in a request for a transfer auror to come here and fill Carter's field position for the time being."

"What," Rose said astonished "Sir, that seems a bit unreasonable, it takes months for a bond to form between partners."

"Well at the rate that this video is being viewed, it may take months for this incident to die down." Cornell argued.

"But Sir, there must be another solution, I mean Matt is my partner, we stick together." Rose stated clearly, pointing to Matt.

"I understand that Weasley but I can't have two of my best aurors on paperwork duty, it's embarrassing enough to have one of them on it." He said giving Matt a glaring eye. "Besides, the transfer has already been accepted and the paperwork has been signed, there is little that I could do about it now."

Rose sighed "Do you at least have a name?"

Cornell shrugged "All I know is that he was the first person available for immediate transfer with no preferences on where he ended up, and that he will be leaving from London tonight."

Rose crossed her arms as she glared at the floor, Cornell leaned forward twiddling his fingers together. "Look I know the situation isn't ideal, believe me I wish we weren't in it," he said the last part loudly, glancing his eyes to Matt for a moment before he looked back at Rose "It's not permanent, six months tops," He paused "The man comes highly recommended from his superiors and chances are you might have met him, he is English."

Rose rolled her eyes "Oh well that's a relief because I know everyone that has an English accent" she said sarcastically "furthermore there is not a single person that I know from London who I would ever consider working with."

"Yeah she can be pretty picky," Matt added.

"Weasley drop the attitude, you chose an idiot for your partner," that wiped the grin off Matt's face "and unfortunately you have been dragged into the situation. I don't want to hear another word on the subject, you are going to suck it up and work with him whether you like it or not." Cornell looked at both Matt and Rose shaking his head "I'm sticking my neck out on the line by not firing you," he pointed a finger at Matt "Don't make me regret my decision." He almost shouted, taking a calming breath he added "Now the both of you get out of my office before I lose my mind."

Both Rose and Matt stood up quickly not willing to question Cornell. "Weasley," Cornell added when she was halfway out of the door, turning to look at him "Remember to try and play nice," he added noting about her temper.

Nodding her head Rose quickly shut the door and turned on Matt "Damn it Matt I could kill you," she said quickly as she rushed over to her desk grabbing her duffle bag full of her work out clothes.

"You know that accent of yours gets a whole lot sexier when you're mad." Matt joked.

Rose glared her eyes as she lifted her head "Your joking, you just got suspended and you think this is a perfect time to become a comedian, but then again I guess you can explore other career options because you don't still have your position."

"Jeez you seem more upset than I am about it," Matt said leaning against her desk.

"That's because it's not your just your life that is being screwed around with, it's mine." She said through gritted teeth.

"So how did it go?" Carla's sweet voice asked.

"Don't ask," Rose spat as she quickly walked past Carla gripping her duffle bag tightly.

"Where is she going," Carla asked, her eyebrows raised in confusion.

Matt sighed "To kick something." He stated not even having to think about it.

Carla's face went from concern to angry. Crossing her arms she glared at her boyfriend "What happened Matt?" She asked in a tone that a mother gets before she is about to yell at her kids.

Mat shook his head as he realized that he was not only in the dog house with Rose, but he was about to be in it with Carla as well. Having one of the two most important women in his life mad at him was one thing, but having both of them mad at him, was a living hell.

* * *

Rose lay still as she stared at her ceiling, the sun slowly streaming in. She rarely slept in past five, but today was an exception. She rolled over on her side as she attempted to shut her eyes again, as if that was supposed to make her magically fall asleep. She couldn't explain why but just knew that today was going to be a horrible day. Working with a new partner shouldn't upset her as much as it did, she had had several new partners when she was traveling for her old job, but a part of her supposed that the issue wasn't the fact that she was getting a new partner, but more that she'd gotten use to her life, comfortable with Matt.

She knew Matt's every move before he made it and he did hers. As a team they were great, admittedly he drove her up the wall mad sometimes, and not a day went by that she didn't want to curse him, but in the end they were always a team, and losing that, even if only for a few months, bothered her.

She reached over for her watch, checking the time. She had a half hour before she would officially be late for work, which prompted the question should she just owl in that she is sick. Dropping the watch back on her night stand she shook her head, not only was that entirely too suspicious, and rude to her new partner, but it was also irresponsible.

Slowly she dragged the warm shield of her blanket off of her and slipped out of bed. She had missed the opportunity for a shower, but she was scheduled to do physical training in the gym today at work, so she supposed she could always take a shower there when she was done.

Brushing her dark red hair into their soft curls that touched just below her shoulders, she looked at the purple circles under her eyes. She still hadn't fully recovered from her last assignment yet, where she was forced to sleep with one eye open. Rose usually didn't go undercover, that was something that Matt would do if granted the opportunity. Biting her lip she washed her pale face with warm water, hoping that it might wake her up the slightest bit, or in the least make her appear as if she had made an effort to get ready.

Grabbing a pair of comfortable black pants, and a fitted black t-shirt with a slight v-neck, she changed, remembering to add a sports bra, work out pants, and her tennis shoes to her duffle bag for the afternoon.

The New York auror department had strict rules when it came to dress code, they believed that the less baggy clothes a person wore the better, because there wasn't as much for someone to grab ahold of, or to get hung up on. Also they believed that a auror should be physically fit, requiring every their staff to spend part of their day, if not working on an assignment, in their gym working on upper body strength, cardio, or wrestling. The reason being the scenario if one has lost a hold of their wand, they need to know how to protect themselves using their body. Also the New York auror department did a lot of running; Rose had to admit she had never run so much in her entire life until she arrived in New York. But Cornell had a point the city was just too populated to always apparate, even an abandoned ally was never really abandoned.

Although to Rose's shock she actually enjoyed her time in the gym. She was surprisingly strong for her thin body structure, which was a nice advantage in a fight because people underestimated her.

Leaving her apartment with her bag and coffee mug, Rose walked, reviewing what little she knew of Matt's replacement. She was given the file, that Cornell had received, yesterday and there wasn't much to it. He was top of his auror training class in London, he did attend Hogwarts, but that didn't mean a whole lot to Rose seeing as how just about every witch or wizard in London attended Hogwarts, also their wasn't a graduation year, so it could have literally been anyone. He apparently had some real skills with a wand and was a crafty potion maker, but so was she so she didn't feel too intimidated.

Taking a sip of her coffee, Rose couldn't help but feel a little cheated; the fact that the file department wouldn't give the person's name was a bit botched, even though she understood the reasoning behind it. Truth was that very little files on aurors contained names or pictures, they were protected by a charm that only the file keeper in the office would have. The idea was that if there was ever to be a security breach, the ministry of magic needed the names of their aurors protected. A lot of names were already well known among dark Wizards, but if they didn't have a face to connect to a name, all the auror would have to do is use a different name and the dark Wizard wouldn't know the difference.

She felt her stomach plummet as she nervously walked into the lobby, every single step becoming heavier. Climbing up the steps to the third floor she breathed slowly, noticing how nothing in the office seemed even close to different, but it all was.

Rose dropped her bag beside her desk, sitting down to attempt to focus her attention on anything else except for her current situation… It wasn't working much.

"Weasley!" a voice yelled shocking her attention back into reality. Jerking her head around, she saw Cornell standing in his doorway, waving a hand for her to come join him in his office.

Rose felt as her hands went sweaty, her breathing shaky and light. She just had to remain calm, and remind herself that this wasn't the end of the world. Making her way to Cornell's office she bit her lip, anticipating to see the face of her new partner, but when she looked around, the room was empty with the exception of Matt sitting in a chair in front of her. Cornell grunted a good morning to her and took a seat in his chair.

Cornell waved a hand to one of the wooden chairs in front of his desk. Taking the seat she looked at Matt to give her a sign of what was going on but he only shook his head, handing her the coffee cup that was in his hand. Rose looked at it for a second before she took a sip and handed it back to him.

"Thanks," she mumbled, grateful for the burst of caffeine, having finished her own cup on the walk to work.

"No problem," he whispered, taking a large gulp from the cup and looking at his watch.

The three of them had sat in silence as Cornell looked down to a folder, rifling through it, paying no attention to the pair in front of him. Suddenly the door behind them barged open, and following Cornell and Matt's lead Rose stood up to face the blond haired blue eyed man that was her new partner, and her heart stopped.

Alright I know there was no Scorpius/Rose action in this chapter but I think it was a good set up for Rose and where her life is at now. Thank you for reading and please review. What do you think will happen next.


	2. First Encounters

**Chapter 2**

Rose's foot smacked hard against the red punching bag, as she spun around kicking it again with her other foot. The sweat was dripping down her face, neck, arms, and stomach, making all the parts of her skin that were showing glisten in the light. She didn't know how long she had been in the facility and she honestly didn't care.

Leaning forward she punched the bag repeatedly feeling her hands starting to bruise. _Hey_, that was all she could focus on, not even a _hey how are you_, just a simple hey, that was all she could muster up. One wouldn't believe her surprise and shock to see Scorpius Malfoy come strutting into Cornell's office two days ago. Sitting down in the room, she could hardly say a word, and had no recollection of signing the partner agreement even though she had a copy of the form sitting on her desk. _Hey, _that was all she said to him, and as far as she was concerned that was all she was going to say to him until he got his stubborn arse back to a portkey site and was on his way back home to London.

"So whose face are you picturing on that thing?" His voice asked from behind her.

Rose didn't speak as she hit the bag hard enough to make it move a considerable amount.

Scorpius sighed, and crossed his arms; he had to admit seeing Rose was less than ideal, especially since his current situation was already sensitive. He turned around to see Matt as he only shook his head advising him to not continue to push Rose, although little did Matt know that he was probably one of the only people who knew how far he could actually push Rose Weasley. "You know you can't just ignore me forever, eventually you are going to have to talk to me,"

She didn't even flinch as she continued to hit, kick, and torture the poor bag. Scorpius could feel himself becoming annoyed by her childish attitude, he didn't plan on this happening but if working with her was part of his job, then he was going to do it whether she liked it or not. Still ignoring him she attacked the bag with all her wrath making a slight growl.

Watching as she focused all her rage onto her current task, "That's it." Scorpius mumbled quickly placing his arms around the bag in a firm hold, so that it was forced to stay in place. He wasn't trying to provoke her but he sure as hell wasn't going to put up with this attitude for the next six months.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" she almost shouted meeting him in the eyes for the first time since he arrived in New York, only to quickly glance away and focus on the bag again.

"You need a time out," he said sternly "Children get time outs and seeing as how you are acting like a four year old…"

"Excuse me!" Rose said. "You think that I am acting like a child?"

"Well children do generally throw temper tantrums when they don't get their way." Scorpius stated.

Rose's mouth dropped, her hand balling up into a stiff fist of rage. Going back to being silent she kicked the bag hard enough so that it was forced to push away from Scorpius' grip, punching the bag several times in a row with her fury.

Scorpius shook his head realizing that maybe calling her a child wasn't the best tactic in the world even though that was how she was acting. One thing that would never change is that Rose Weasley doesn't take insults well and he had crossed that line.

Taking a slightly calmer tone he said "Rose I get that you're pissed but…"

She stopped moving raising an eyebrow to him "Pissed is that what I am," she gave a sarcastic laugh "I'm pissed when I misplace my wand." She glared at Malfoy, while punching the bag "I'm pissed when my roommate uses all the hot water and I want to take a shower." Rose stopped what she was doing and grabbed her water bottle that was sitting on the floor, taking a large gulp she shook her head "This isn't pissed, this is infuriated."

Scorpius becoming more irritated leaned forward "Well I'm sorry that seeing me makes you so infuriated but you might as well get used to it, because until my contract is up I'm not going anywhere, and there is not a damn thing that you can do about it." Scorpius spat.

"I could write my father," Rose threatened.

Scorpius narrowed his eyes "You wouldn't dare."

"Really," Rose said realizing that she had the upper hand, "Try me," she tempted.

Scorpius paused a minute replaying her words in her head, giving a smirk he leaned his head in closer to hers "You can make that empty threat all you want, but at the end of the day you won't do it."

"And what makes you think that I wouldn't" their faces were so close that they were almost touching.

"Because if you do that then you give your father the satisfaction of knowing that you still need him," Scorpius raised his eyebrows to see if he was right, and judging by Rose's lack of a reaction he assumed that he was.

She stood still, almost as if someone had poured ice water down her back "What are you doing here?" she whispered, watching as he averted his gaze away from hers, straightening his posture almost seeming to be uncomfortable by the thought.

"That's none of your business," he said professionally, and took a look around the gym noticing as all the other aurors minded their own distance, but still observing him, as he was, the outsider. He sighed deciding that he wasn't going to get anywhere with Rose acting the way she was, turning around he headed for the locker room.

Rose was stunned by his response, technically he didn't owe her an answer but she wanted one. Rushing after him "Hey," she yelled tugging on his shoulder hard enough that he was forced to turn around, "You waltz back into my life, I get to know why you're here."

Scorpius fumed "You're not getting the answer to that. The point is that I'm here and I'm not going back to London anytime soon." Yanking his shoulder from her grasp he continued to walk away.

Rose stood still, she wasn't sure what had come over her, but the next thing she knew she saw her water bottle flying through the air towards the direction of Scorpius smacking against the back of his head and he froze "Scorpius Malfoy don't you dare take another step towards that door without giving me an answer." She yelled to his back.

The room was silent as all eyes were glued onto them. Scorpius turned around slowly taking four large steps toward her so that he was towering over her "And if I don't?" He asked in a dark tone.

Her eyes narrowed as she quickly swung her arm in the direction of his chin. "Damn, you're a lot stronger than I remember," Scorpius said rubbing his swelling jaw, slightly impressed because she in no way looked like she could possibly throw a punch that hard.

"Yeah well a lot has changed since the last time you knew me." She argued

"Oh really?" Scorpius asked quickly grabbing a hold of her arm and forcing her to spin around, pulling Rose close to his body. Wrapping his muscular arms securely around her upper body, he held her captive "Doesn't seem like that much has changed." He jabbed, noting the fact that her weakness was still being taken off guard.

Rose struggled against his body, his bare chest touching the exposed skin of her spine, only making her current situation worse because he instinctively tightened his grip around her. She looked at her fellow coworkers as they had now officially stopped what they were doing and gathered in small groups. "You are really going to regret it if you don't let me go?" she seethed.

He breathed calmly, too calm, as he leaned his head in towards her ear. The hairs on her neck stood up as he emitted warm humid air against her moist skin. Scorpius made a slight grumble of a laugh "You forget Rose, we used to do this for a sport."

Rose felt as his abdomen pressed against her spine slow calm breaths sucking in and out, as chills ran through her. Sweat trickled between their two bodies. Closing her eyes, she turned her head into his direction lifting it up slightly so her lips could meet his ear, feeling his body becoming rigid behind her, he still clasped her "You're right we did," she whispered each word sharply so that each puff of air would hit against his skin. Opening her eyes she smirked meeting his same provoking gaze.

Grazing her right foot up along his leg, Rose felt his heat radiate through the sweaty dampness of her skin clutching yoga pants. Her heel lingered at his knee, then quickly slamming down onto his foot, catching him off guard enough to loosen his grip on her.

Arching for enough space she elbowed him in the ribs, and he let go of her. Turning around he wasn't crouched over like most people would have been, still his face said that he was shocked, but not so much that she could take him by surprise. Swinging her leg into the air he caught it by her calf an inch before her foot could make contact with his face.

"I'm not going to fight you," Scorpius stated, the only barrier keeping their two bodies from touching was her leg which was firmly grasped above his head.

"What nervous that I might actually be able to beat you?" She gave a sinister smile.

"No," He shot, meeting her eyes with a sharp look "I just know that I can hurt you."

"You've hurt me before what's so different about now?" she pushed, determined. Scorpius let out short breathes, he didn't answer he only stared at her. Her heart went racing with that look, "That is not a reason." She whispered, knowing exactly what his reason was for not fighting her.

"It's a reason to me," His words hard and pointed, not once did Scorpius let his eyes fall.

Taking several deep breaths, Rose sighed attempting to recompose herself in a way that she had found familiar "If I win you leave and go back to London." Scorpius shook his head advising her not to do this, "and if you win," she tempted raising her eyebrows, catching his attention. "I work with you and mind my own business." Scorpius was strong but she was sure that she could beat him, she knew that the London auror department didn't require as much physical fitness training as the New York department.

"You'll drop the bloody attitude." Scorpius added.

"Do we have a deal," she asked leaning her head in.

Scorpius thought for a moment, his heart pounding hard against his sternum. Releasing her leg "Deal,"

"Good," Rose said grabbing ahold of his neck and tackling him to the ground.

"Well that was a cheap move," he mumbled as she positioned her hand around his neck.

"We've never played fair before," was all she said before she punched him in the nose.

* * *

"What's up with Weasley and the new guy," Grey Holms asked coming up behind Carla and Matt.

"No clue, but I'm assuming that she knows him." Carla said leaning over the railing to better observe the fight that was going on down below on the gym floor.

Matt looking slightly concerned didn't pull his eyes away from the fight as he said "What gives you that idea?"

Carla crossed her arms "You don't attack someone like that and not know them."

"Last time I saw her that angry I hid for a week." Grey commented, as a few more aurors clumped around the railing at the top of the bleachers.

"Well in her defense you didn't tell her that you were using her as live bait to get the guy." Carla defended watching as Rose straddled Scorpius' abs, while she dug her knees into his sides. "Quit going easy on me!" she heard Rose yell followed by a large pounding noise of her fist connecting to his face again. Carla laughed, assuming what Rose meant by the comment, she hated it if she fought a man and he didn't fight back because she was a girl, to her it was the ultimate insult.

"I swear if he hits her I'm going to be pissed," Matt said in a protective tone.

"Oh she'll love it and you know it." Carla stated, knowing that Rose had taken out guys twice as big a Scorpius Malfoy, and still remained unharmed. "It will fire her up and make her want to kick his ass more, which from the looks of it doesn't seem like it will take too much." Noticing as Scorpius already seemed to be slightly put off.

* * *

Avoiding another punch to the face, Scorpius placed his hands on Rose's stomach, letting his fingers lead the way, for his arms to snake around her bare hips and back. Gripping her tightly, he tugged, forcing Rose's upper body to press completely against his as he rolled over on top of her.

His body weight crushing as he covered her, squeezing her thighs tightly around his waist she locked her feet firmly. Scorpius remained still for a moment, making sure that he had her trapped tightly beneath him so that she couldn't move. His head was pressed to the crook of her neck as he took in the thick air from the enclosed space, his heart raced as he felt the pulse from her neck rapidly thumping, her body convulsing under his struggling to become free. His lips barley brushed the skin of her neck but he could still taste the salt that was perspiring from it. Closing her eyes Rose gasped, momentarily stiffening, as he shifted his face up. The tip of his nose skimming her check before he pressed his forehead against hers.

Rose was forced to breathe when he did, the weight of his muscle pushing tightly on her lungs. Slow heavy breathes she opened her eyes to meet his, both of them inhaling the same air.

Scorpius couldn't speak as he let himself adjust to how close he was to Rose between her legs. "I don't need to hit you in order to win." Sweat skimming down his forehead and on to hers, their bodies molded together. He had her pinned to the ground, with no chance of letting her go anytime soon, taking a deep breath she did the only thing she could. Swinging her head out from his she, pummeled her forehead into his, hard enough that the sound was heard all around the gym.

Scorpius pulled his hands from under her, standing up and crouching forward as she jumped up, staring him down she leaned forward slightly to punch him. Scorpius moved his head backwards avoiding her hand, maneuvering his elbow knocking her arm out of its path, taking a step forward so that she was forced to go backwards. Raising her other arm he blocked it as well.

"What? You too much of coward to hit me back," Rose yelled, annoyed that she was the only one actually attempting to fight, all he was doing was defending himself.

"Believe me when I say, I don't need to hit you in order to win this." He said sternly.

Something in that statement, the way he said it so sure of himself made Rose want to kill him "Oh really," she spat with a rabid look in her eyes "Prove it," balling her hand up as tight as she could, letting all of her aggression fuel it. She was going for a right hook, aiming for the side of his face, not caring if she might break her own hand in the process. Leaning back to get a little more force she shot her fist at him knowing that there was no way he could block her arm.

Closing her eyes she felt as it smacked into something hard, the cracking noise so loud that it almost sounded like someone had apparated. Her fist throbbed achingly as she felt herself unable to pull it back towards her. Opening her eyes, Scorpius standing a foot from her his own hand held out in front of his face with her knuckles firmly pressed into his palm, his fingers clenched around the top of her fist.

He had a dangerous look in his eyes and a scowl on his face, "This is me proving it," he said not giving Rose the chance to respond. Fighting the tension in her arm, he marched her backwards so that her back was slammed into the wall.

Raising his knee up so it was jabbed into her stomach, he twisted her arm. Yelping, Rose was shocked by the pain as he constrained her fist, pinning it against the wall above her head.

Rose clawed against his arm with her other hand, trying to break free, watching as his blood seeped onto her finger nails, but he seemed as if he didn't even notice that she had done it. Grabbing a hold of her other hand Scorpius cuffed it with the other, pushing harder on it so that there was no chance of her wiggling free. Gliding his other arm across the slippery skin of her chest he held her down, so that she couldn't even push her head forward.

He breathed slowly adding some pressure to the arm that was against her neck, he wasn't pushing on her hard enough to actually hurt her, but she defiantly couldn't move out of the position. Rose was stuck, every defensive part of her body had managed to be pinned down by Scorpius Malfoy and there was no way out.

Her face was plastered in sweat, and she felt his breath sweep across her face, for a moment chills pulse through her, the hairs on her arms standing. The familiar position had her unnerved, in an uncomfortable way. Squirming slightly her body moved against his but she remained stuck. Scorpius scowled while adding all of his body weight against hers, making her gasp with pain. "Rose we fought each other daily for five years, I know how to beat you." he whispered across her skin, his breath brushing a cool breeze against her skin blowing a lose piece of hair from her forehead.

She looked into his eyes, those grey blue eyes that used to numb her senses, he jerked his head back his pale blond hair reflecting the beads of sweat that were dripping from the tips, his whole body plastered in sweat. Raising his eyebrows he pushed his knee further into her abdomen, fisting his hand around her wrist to the point that he hands were starting become red, he held her gaze as he waited for her to admit defeat. Biting her lip so that she wouldn't think about the pain it started to bleed.

Scorpius stared at the wall above her head in almost a numb like state, "Please don't make me push harder," he said his words hard, and toneless, avoiding her gaze.

"Six months and your gone?" her voice barely audible.

Looking down to her, his jaw clinched together "Six months and I'm gone." Scorpius answered slowly, his heart pounding from the fight but racing because of how close he was to her.

Rose took a shaky breath forcing her eyes away from his, loosening his grip on her she yanked her arms free. Pushing away from him she stormed out the door.

A/N: Alright probably not what you were expecting, Rose definitely has some aggression going on, I always had a feeling that she would be mad when he showed up, Rose doesn't do well with changes so... Yeah. Tell me what you think. I was going for a fight scene but with some passion and torment in it so please let me know if I succeed.


	3. Thinking With Avoidences

**Chapter 3**

Rose wasn't sure what had come over her as she pressed her back against the cold surface of the tiled wall in the locker room. The room was empty and a deafening, nothing but the buzzing of the lights from the ceiling.

Holding her breath she shut her eyes, letting the warmness of her sticky dry skin clash with the coolness of the tile, engulfing her in chills. Chills that she felt creep up her spine, all the way through her scalp.

Letting her head fall into her hands Rose sighed. She knew that she was being childish, but for some reason she couldn't help it. It wasn't that she still had feeling for him, she reassured herself as her body quivered almost uncontrollably. She had made sure to burry away any emotions that she might have years ago. Although she had to admit that her reaction to him now compared to her reaction to him four years ago were two completely different situations.

It was easy for her to see him and catch up with him four years ago, knowing that when they left they would each return to their own separate lives which had nothing to do with one another. However, now the thought of getting up every day and having to see him and work with him, even if it was only for six months, was unbearable.

Opening her eyes she looked at her shaking hands, noticing the dried blood under and around her fingernails for the first time, _his blood_, she thought. Suddenly the knot in her stomach started to rise as her hands shook widely.

Grabbing her towel she went into the nearest shower stall. Turning the water as hot as it would go, she waited for the small space to steam up. Not even bothering to take her clothes off, the shock of the burning water jerked her back into reality. Scrubbing her fingers ferociously, she watched the slightly pink water blind into the clean clear water, forcing the blood to fade into nothing. Releasing the sound of a relieved breath, she placed a hand on the tile and leaned her head forward, so that she was looking to the ground. Staring at the water, which pooled around the drain, and attempted to think of nothing.

"Rose," she heard a concerned voice call. Readjusting her posture she remained silent, listening as Carla walked further into the room. "I just wanted to make sure that you were alright?"

"I'm fine," she managed to choke out.

"Are you sure you seemed pretty upset when you left the gym."

"I said I was fine Carla," Rose said in a clearer tone, taking short deep breaths.

Carla waited outside of the shower stall for a moment. She knew that she couldn't drag information out of Rose, her friend would tell her in her own time, but at the current moment she didn't feel that she should leave. Carla was the type of person who was there for a friend with no questions asked, and she knew that right now Rose needed her, and she needed her to not ask any questions… So she didn't.

When Rose finally emerged from the shower soaked in her work out clothes Carla just stared at her. The slightest look of concern was in the cresses of Rose's lips but she looked completely back to normal. Carla smiled "You know not many people can pull it off but you make that look hot." She said eyeing Rose up and down.

Rose looked down, noticing for the first time that her clothes were still clinging tightly onto her body. Slowly she walked over to Carla and wrapped her arms around her embracing her in a tight hug "I swear Merlin is out to get me." was all she said.

* * *

Scorpius rushed to answer the knock on the door of his new apartment. "Hey," he smiled.

"Out of my way Malfoy, lady with a baby coming through," Stacy said quickly waddling into the small apartment. "Loo?"

"Down the hall to the left," he laughed looking to Bryan who shook his head watching Stacy rush to the restroom.

"I hope you appreciate the crap we do for you," Bryan stated as he pulled a large bag in behind him. "You do realize that my wife is six months pregnant."

"I told you that she didn't have to help, I only needed someone to pack the rest of my stuff." Scorpius commented, he had accepted the position in New York with only a day's notice, so he packed what he could and asked if Bryan would bring the rest.

Bryan let the bag fall to the ground with a loud thud, "First of all I don't think you actually realize how much crap you have, and second she insisted on helping, because she likes to think she's INVINCIBLE… when she not." He made sure to yell the word invincible toward the general direction of the bathroom.

The toilet flushed and Bryan watched Stacy come slowly down the hall, her hand rubbing her stomach. "You know Malfoy, I don't understand how you have put up with him for so long," she mumbled quickly. "He drives me absolutely mental."

"Years and years of practice," Scorpius stated knowing, from having to live with him for six years at Hogwarts, exactly how annoying Bryan could be.

"Yes, well I'm thinking at this rate we will be divorced in two years tops,"

Bryan slid his arm across Stacy's shoulder squeezing it tightly "Oh is that so?" he asked with a grin on his face.

Stacy only nodded her head as she smiled looking at her husband and kissing him on the cheek.

Scorpius couldn't help but feel slightly jealous over the happy couple.

Bryan lowered his arm, so that it was wrapped around Stacy's lower back. He honestly had never been happier. When he ran into Stacy eight months ago at Diagon Ally, he was beyond shocked that she had even acknowledged him, not to mention agree to go out with. He was sure that he had scarred her for life, that one year that they lived in the head's dorm together at Hogwarts, and back then he would have thought that she was too much of a goody goody to date. But that day in Diagon Ally, it only took one look from her, and he knew that his heart had been stolen. The hard part was actually getting her to marry him. She was beyond convinced that the only reason he was asking her was because she was pregnant, but the truth was he had been carrying that stupid ring around in his pocket three weeks before they even found out about the baby.

"Is that everything?" Scorpius asked his voice soft pulling Bryan back into reality.

Bryan nodded his head "If there was ever a trace that you lived in that house it is gone now."

"Good," Scorpius said sternly, watching as Stacy lowered herself onto the couch and closed her eyes. She sat still for a minute, her hands resting on the large bump of her stomach, her breathing short and rough.

"Do you need some water?" Scorpius asked slightly concerned.

"I'm fine," she said after a moment, "I'm miserable, but fine." She opened her eyes to look at Bryan and Scorpius, smiling.

"My godson giving you a hard time?" Scorpius joked.

"He thinks it's funny to jab his foot in his mummy's kidney." She said smoothly rubbing her hand over to her side pushing her fingers into her stomach. "Speaking of godparents, Vivian said that she was extremely sorry that she was going to miss the shower but she will certainly be there for the birth and she sent us a lovely stroller."

"Oh is that what that blasting thing was in the middle of our doorstep this afternoon? Great, another muggle contraption that I have to build. Remind me to owl her a very _lovely_ thank you note." Bryan mumbled.

Scorpius rolled his eyes "You two really do have the oddest relationship. I'm still not entirely sure how you and Vivian are friends after that break up?" Scorpius stated, watching as Bryan took a seat beside Stacy and tenderly laid his arm across her belly.

"What can I say it was mutual, it took us two and a half years to realize that we weren't in love with each other anymore, the friendship never died." Scorpius caught the slightly uncomfortable expression that was on Stacy's face at the mention of Bryan and Vivian's friendship, but she quickly covered it up when she noticed that he was watching her. Bryan rubbing Stacy's stomach added "And if I do say so myself, it worked out for the best."

Stacy nodded in agreement as she laid her hand on top of Bryan's. Taking a sudden breath she asked in a serious voice "Do you have any fish flake ice cream." the sudden craving for a carton coming on fast.

"Fish flaked ice cream," Scorpius repeated slowly making sure that he heard her correctly "I'm going to have to say no, but I do have bagels and left over steak." He offered noting the fact that he hadn't actually had time to go to the grocery store yet. Stacy scrunched her face at the thought and focused her mind on something else.

"Fish flaked ice cream?" Scorpius mouthed to Bryan with a horrified look on his face.

"Don't ask," Bryan responded back sternly.

Scorpius only nodded his head, walking past the bag on the floor he took a seat at one of the stools that was at the breakfast bar, facing Bryan and Stacy giving them a forced smile.

Stacy picking up on the look asked "So how are you holding up?" Bryan stared at Stacy with wide eyes. "What?" she said innocently "Are we supposed to pretend that it didn't happen? No offense." She said glancing to Scorpius.

Scorpius felt his nerves go numb, slightly taken aback by the question. "I'm fine," he managed to squeak out. He waited a moment making sure that he could actually speak before he added "What makes you think that something's wrong?"

Giving an odd head gesture around the apartment Stacy let her eyes land on Scorpius "Hello, you moved out of London. You don't think that this is a bit extreme?"

He didn't answer the question, instead he turned to Bryan "I have an idea let's change the subject… How's your new partner?"

"HA!" Scorpius mock laughed, standing up he walked to the kitchen sink grabbing a glass of water "Keep moving on to a different subject mate." He said quickly.

"Why?" Bryan asked "She really uptight or something?"

Scorpius took a large gulp of water; he knew that there was no way he was going to be able to avoid two conversations in a row. So he had to choose: either talk about his new partner or go back to his sudden move from London, neither of which sounded too appealing. Slowly taking another sip of water he said "Stacy when was the last time you talked to your old friend Rose Weasley?"

Stacy's mouth dropped, it wasn't the name that was so shocking to Stacy. It was the person saying the name that surprised her. When Stacy first started dating Bryan, she had learned early on that any subject involving Rose Weasley was forbidden territory, and to remain unspoken.

"Rose Weasley," she repeated "Well there's a name I haven't heard in a while. I owled her once, maybe four years ago to see how she was doing. Said she was good and living in Toronto, as far as I know she is still there."

"Really?" Bryan said "I heard that she was in Fiji."

"And how did you hear that?" she asked.

"Well I swore one day I overheard the Potter brothers talking about it, but I didn't pay much attention about where." He paused a moment "Maybe they were talking about Fred Weasley instead."

"How on earth could you possibly confuse Fred Weasley with Fiji?" Stacy asked.

"I don't know it was like six months ago. In my defense I was a bit preoccupied," Bryan stated narrowing his eyes towards Stacy's stomach with a grin on his face.

Scorpius poured the rest of his water into the sink, while listening to the conversation behind him. "What if I told you that you were both wrong and that she lives here in New York." He kept his back to them as he said it. "Has been for nearly three years,"

The sudden silence from the couple was exactly the reaction he had been expecting. Turning around to face them he leaned against the sink and crossed his arms. Both Bryan and Stacy looked at each other, then back to Scorpius with raised eyebrows.

"Oh and I might add, she's my new partner." He said tonelessly, walking around the counter back into the living room.

Stacy's mouth was agape, "And how is she taking this."

"Well she ignored me for two days, and she attacked me today, so I'd say she is taking it pretty well."

"Nice to know that temper of hers hasn't changed," Stacy muttered.

"Not a bit," Turning to Bryan who had oddly remained quiet on the subject "Any comments mate?" he asked giving him the chance to throw his opinion out.

"The curse of the Thursday strikes again." Sadly Scorpius wasn't sure if Bryan said that to lighten the sudden tension in the room, or if he was being dead serious in that response. Although knowing his friend and having heard his theory on how Thursdays are the epitome of evil several times, he was sure that it was probably the later.

"Oh for Merlin's sake," Stacy rolled her eyes, pushing Bryan's hand off her stomach and giving him a serious look.

Scorpius couldn't help but laugh "Actually this particular event happened on a Tuesday." He corrected.

An excited look appeared on Stacy's face, narrowing her eyes to Bryan his expression went from one of certainty to confusion, with a hurt look in his eyes. "Oh Malfoy, I think you may have broken his heart with the knowledge that not every horrid event is because of a Thursday."

Bryan crossed his arms like a five year old who had just been told chocolate frogs weren't real frogs. Stacy had to stifle back a laugh, keeping a serious expression on her face, "Sweetie," she said attempting to comfort him by rubbing his arm. Bryan shoved Stacy's hand away to consolidate his pain on his own.

Taking a deep breath she knew that this was going to take some time. "So it looks like we are going to be here for a few hours, how can I help?" Stacy asked motioning to the bag.

* * *

Rose stood in front of her dresser drawers with the delicate necklace in her hand, the marble ball on the end swaying from side to side. She couldn't tell how long she had been staring at it, and she wasn't even sure why she pulled it out of the box which she kept it secure in.

Sighing, she remembered when Scorpius gave it to her in her seventh year. He told her that he was in love with her, and kissed her right before school let out for the holidays. She had slapped him for that, even though he was right, she did love him too.

On the night of Christmas Eve she went to her room, planning to go to bed when she saw it…the box was just sitting on her windowsill, almost as if it had always belonged there. The memory was so clear, even till this day. The memory of when she went against everything that she had ever known, and she let him guide her.

He had waited for her all night, just for the slight chance that she might come to him. Touching the marble flame, Rose could never figure out how he was able to capture the flame inside the delicate glass bead, even now it still glowed as if the necklace had seen no time.

Closing her eyes she remembered the snow as she followed the flame to him. The early hours of the morning before dawn had even risen yet. The way he seemed so happy to see her meeting him in the woods. The hairs on her arm stood up as she thought back to the way he touched her and kissed her, the way his warm breath prickled her skin as he told her he loved her. She had given up her resistance that day and told him that she loved him too. She had promised to fight for him… a promise which she broke.

"Rose," Carla said leaning into her room.

Jerking her head she was almost in shock as she recomposed herself. "What?" she spoke almost unsteady.

"The movie is almost ready," Carla announced, squinting her eyes to what was in Rose's hand. "That's really pretty what is that?" she asked.

"Nothing," Rose quickly snapped, clasping her hand around the marble so that Carla couldn't see it. "Just a knickknack really," she said a bit more relaxed as she dropped it back in the box and placing it in her top drawer.

Carla only nodded with a wry smile, as Rose walked pass her out into the living room.

Matt was standing in the kitchen in front of the microwave, waiting the last ten seconds for the microwave to beep. "Alright so I've popped four bags of popcorn, and I picked up two cartons of ice cream on the way over here, so we should be set."

"Hey babe did you get the…" Carla yelled, but before she got the chance to finish Matt was fumbling inside a grocery bag, pulling out a large red package of candy and throwing it to her.

"Red vines," he finished, watching as Carla smiled and walked to the couch to sit down. Eyeing Rose, he said "And for you," he pulled out a box of Bertie Bott's every flavor beans.

Rose smiled at the gesture, knowing that he went out of his way to go to the grocery store that had a separate section in the back for witches and wizard goods. To muggles it would look like an employee's only door but inside there was potion ingredients, cauldrons, spell books, and even the candy that Rose had so fondly grown up with. Of course it was always a pain to go to that store because one ended up having to pay twice, once in the actual store for the grocery's with muggle money, and then again in the back with Wizarding money.

That was another big difference between London and New York that Rose had to adjust to. In London there seemed to be more accommodations for the Wizarding world. For crying out loud she grew up in a town full of nothing but Wizards, and the use of public restrooms and phone booths as entrances to the ministry, but seeing as how Wizards originated from there it made sense. However in the United States the Wizarding world was much more dispersed and hidden. From what Rose could gather the Salem Witch trials really got some people worked up, and the Wizards figured it would probably be best if they blended in with muggles, instead of stayed to themselves.

When Rose first told Matt about Hogwarts, a boarding school specifically for the teaching of Witches and Wizards, he had never heard of a place so exciting. He told her how in the United Stated, witches and wizards attended Muggle schools in the day time, and then had after school _clubs_ that they had to attend for their Wizarding lessons each day.

Taking the box of Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, she looked at it. Matt stretched his hands above his head "If any one tried to tell me that I didn't know the two of you like the back of my hand I would laugh at them."

Slowly placing the box back on the counter "Thank you," she said distracted.

Forcing Matt to give her a stunned look "What's wrong," he asked becoming slightly frustrated.

"Nothing I'm just not hungry." She stated clearly.

"Are you serious?" He stared her down, "How are you not hungry? I have seen you eat. You have a bottomless pit for a stomach and you never gain weight."

"You know occasionally I do become full Matt." Rose tried to joke, but it came out sounding angry.

"Since when?" Matt shot back, pulling the last bag of popcorn out of the microwave and poured it into a large bowl with the other three bags.

"Since now," She countered.

Rolling his eyes Matt groaned "I have got to get some guy friends, I don't know how much longer my sanity can take you twos bipolar disorders."

"Hey Grey is your friend," Carla said defensively from the couch.

"Yeah well I have to be nice to Grey because he is your partner." He answered picking up the bowl and walking over to the couch and plopping down beside Carla.

"Grey isn't that bad once you get past his weird sense of humor." Carla argued.

"Hey take what you can get it has taken me a good six years to get used to him in general, I'm not even going to attempt to get past that sick humor of his." Rose took a seat on the other side of Carla staring down at the television remotes, she could manage to levitate someone with a wand but for the life of her she couldn't work a television. "You know the fact that you can tolerate him says a lot about your sick mind."

"What can I say we were in the same group of friends in high school." Was all Carla could say back.

Matt only shook his head as he looked to Rose "That guy Scorpius seems to be somewhat decent." He watched to see if she would give any notion of who he was.

Instead she remained expressionless starring at the screen flipping the remote in her hand and pressing random buttons. "I'm sure he can have his moments." She answered her voice giving no clues.

Matt sighed extending his hand "Will you hand me that thing before you make the screen upside down again."

Doing as she was told, Rose handed the remotes over and listened as the movie began although her mind was somewhere else.

* * *

Stacy sat on the floor as she pulled book after book out of the bag, Bryan had long ago fallen asleep on the couch and she let him because she knew that work would come early for him.

"You know if you want to get going you can," Scorpius said stacking the books into a specific order and then waving his wand to place them on the shelf.

"No it's fine, I don't sleep much anyways, the baby's always doing something so I mind as well do something productive with my time." She said softly reading the titles of the books as she handed them to him. She had remembered Rose in school and her collection of books, which she thought was massive, that was nothing compared to Scorpius' collection which was nearly double.

Scorpius nodded as if he understood, although being a man he couldn't possibly. Taking the book from Stacy's hand he put it in a pile to the side. "So how are you honestly with the whole situation here?" she asked pulling his attention from the pile.

"You know I'm not sure, I feel like I should be more upset about it than I am, but with everything else that has gone wrong in my life lately I can't say that I am shocked." Scorpius said more to himself.

Handing him another book she they went back to silence. "Scorpius," she said suddenly.

"Your using my first name it's time to be serious." He joked lightly.

Eyeing him she continued "You know regardless of what you believe I have grown rather found of you and I don't wish to see you get hurt."

"Well I don't have to worry about that much, she has made it perfectly clear that she want's nothing to do with me… Which is probably for the best." Thinking for a moment he said "I would go back… I just" he thought of how to explain it "I just can't right now."

"I understand, running is the easiest option." She had a short tone to her voice.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows at how out spoken she was with her thoughts. "Right now it is."

Stacy didn't say another word on the subject as she reached into the bag and handed him another book an odd noise coming from Bryan's lips in the background.

Looking over to Bryan as he stirred in his sleep Scorpius laughed "I think we crushed his dreams."

"He'll forget about it in the morning." She smiled tenderly looking at her husband.

Scorpius extended his hand to take a book but one didn't come looking up he saw how Stacy sat still just watching Bryan, he wondered if that was what she did in her spare time when the baby was keeping her awake. The way she sat and observed him, so content and relaxed, she had to have been in a familiar setting.

Smiling Scorpius lowered his hand "When Bryan first told me that he had met the girl of his dreams, and he was in love with her after only one date I thought he had gone crazy. Then when he told me that it was you, I knew he had gone crazy." Scorpius gave a small chuckle to the thought "Turns out I was the crazy one for not believing him." Stacy turned to look at Scorpius with the same tender expression on her face.

"I know you think that Vivian still has some sort of hold on him, but I can tell you right now that she doesn't." Extending his hand to her shoulder so that Stacy was looking him in the eyes he said "Bryan has never loved anyone the way he loves you."

Stacy couldn't help but blush at the words Scorpius had said to her "I think that might be the sweetest thing you have ever said to me."

Scorpius only shrugged his shoulders as he lowered his arm. Reaching into the bag Stacy pulled out another book and handed it to Scorpius "And I think that this is the last of the books." She said with a satisfied look.

"Well if that's the case then I think we are done." Scorpius announced as he stood up and helped Stacy off of the floor.

"Malfoy I know that we packed more than just books so what's next?" Stacy said crossing her arms.

"Are you serious?" Scorpius looking at this small women who was six months pregnant and ready to do anything.

"Bryan wasn't lying when he said that I thought I was invincible." She said quickly kicking at the bag "So what's next."

Shaking his head Scorpius sighed "Clothes I guess, but if you feel the need to leave just let me know." He insisted even though he was grateful for the extra help.

A/N: I know that there is no Rose/Scor action in this, but oddly I really like this chapter, I think it really shows their feelings, not to mention the whole Bryan/Stacy thing, which was really fun to write. Anyways please review and tell me what you think, I love reading them.


	4. Conversations With Awkward Audiences

**Chapter 4**

It was Thursday and the end of Scorpius' second week, apparently in New York they have weekday aurors who work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then a smaller group of Weekend aurors who work Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the two groups alternate who works on Thursdays every other month.

Rose had lived up to her end of the bargain and dropped the attitude. Admittedly there was a slight edge to her voice if she had to talk to him, but other than that she was not being the brat she was last week.

"Can you please explain to me the point of reading through your old partners settled cases?" Scorpius asked leaning forward in his chair, the backs to their desks pushed together so they were forced to face each other. Lifting his eyes he watched as Rose diligently worked on a file. Scorpius lowered his quill and stretched his arms out in front of him, he had been in the same position all morning and he couldn't lie he was starting to become quite restless.

Glancing up, Rose noticed the frustrated expression on his face; dipping her quill in the ink bottle she scribbled something into her own folder, without a response. Scorpius sighed "So you're going to ignore me again."

"No," she said slowly, spinning the quill around in her fingers "I just don't have an answer for you, I don't know why you are being forced to read Matt's old case files."

_At least she said it politely that's an improvement_, Scorpius thought. "Well what are you working on?" he asked curious at to what the large stack of parchment on her desk was for.

"It's my summary of the case I just settled." She answered curtly. Raising an eyebrow to her Rose could feel as his eyes bore into her with a curious expression. "Is there a problem?"

"You do know that a summary is only a summarization of the events, not a full fledge book?" he critiqued seeing that she was on page fifty-three of the file.

Stopping her hand from writing she narrowed her eyes at him "If I wanted your opinion on how to write a summary I would have asked for it." She may have been thorough but at the same time she had worked on that case for four months and six weeks of that time she spent undercover so it wasn't as if she could just make it a short summary. Honestly she would have loved to cram all of that time into a quick ten pages and be done with it but it would have been irresponsible and unreliable if she were to ever need to refer back to this case.

Chuckling at her response Scorpius lowered his eyes again, closing the folder, he opened the file drawer in his desk to put it back. "Your friend Matt has the oddest filing system," Scorpius commented as he tried to find the correct place to leave the folder.

"Umm yeah," Rose said, the slightest bit of exhaustion creeping through her voice. "It' backwards and organized numerically based on themes."

Scorpius couldn't help but stop his search and look Rose dead in the eye "What the hell is a theme?"

"You know was the case based on magical artifacts, murder, plot to take over the ministry… that sort of thing."

"So if this case was about magic artifacts, a murder, and a potions lab which illegally distributed potions to muggles it would be classified as…" He asked.

Rose scrunched her nose not entirely sure where that would go. Standing up she walked around to Scorpius' side of the desk. Carefully handing the file to her Scorpius waited as she flicked though the file examining Matt's sloppy labeling. Crouching down she rifled through the expanded drawer and easily dropped the file into its correct location. "It was under misuse of magical creatures."

"Seriously?" Scorpius asked giving a questioning look.

"There was a dragon involved." She stated simply as if the answer should have been common sense.

"For ten minutes." He argued still not seeing the connection.

Rose couldn't help but give a slight chuckle, "Matt absolutely loves Dragons so if he comes across one in a case they take precedence." Rose turned to look up at him almost banging her head against his knee, unaware that he had rolled slightly back in his chair and of how close they actually were to each other.

Focusing in on the file cabinet below she tried to ignore the closeness of their bodies "What's the next files you need?"

Pulling out the parchment that Cornell had given him with the files he wanted Scorpius to brush up on he said "Henderson, Kently, and Warwick." Pausing he said "Is that Alexander Warwick?"

"Yeah, the case was handed over to Matt and me when he fled to America."

Scorpius gave a slight smile "I remember working on that case in London."

Rose's head shot up "Don't tell me that you were the jerk who absolutely refused to hand over their files on Warwick."

Scorpius crossed his arms and gave a bright smile "That was you that I kept arguing with?" Scorpius asked remembering the week over two years ago when he argued back and forth anonymously with someone from the New York sector, using ministry aided quills and parchment meant for quick transportation and identity security, in case the letters were to be intercepted.

"I swore to Matt that I knew who it was on the other end of those letters." She let out a slight laugh "How come you wouldn't send those stupid files?"

"Hey I had worked on that case from its existence I wasn't about to hand it over to some American who hadn't put the months of time and energy into it that I had." Scorpius said defensively.

Rose could understand that, although at the same time she remembered how frustrated she had become because the more time someone went into hiding the harder it became to find them. "What finally made you give in?"

"The Howler calling me and arrogant bastard and that if I wanted to work on the case so damn bad to come and finish it myself." He smirked.

The slightest hint of a blush appeared across Rose's cheeks. "You have to understand that it was a time sensitive matter and you were being ridiculously stubborn."

"I sent the files didn't I?" he mused.

Rose bit her lip, waiting a moment before she asked "I always wondered why it was that you didn't come and finish the case, you seemed so passionate in those letters and I gave you the opportunity?"

Scorpius stared off lost in his thoughts "Bryan and I were so close to doing it, we had already mapped out where we would start and how long it would take for us to hunt Warwick down, but when it came down to it we both just had other priorities and neither of us were in a place to leave for over two months. It's funny how growing up makes you think about your responsibilities."

She was silent for a moment "Well it's a bloody shame you didn't come because you missed out on a brilliant catch."

"Really?" Scorpius asked with a grin.

"Yeah, took twelve of us to raid him." Rose nodded her head "And I'll tell you that sister of his, Angelica Warwick, that woman can fight. I swear her teeth are as sharp as knives."

"Wait she bit you?" Scorpius had a surprised look on his face.

Rose grinned pulling her hair aside to one shoulder revealing the back of her neck to Scorpius. Tentatively reaching out he tugged on the neck line of her shirt, causing Rose to close her eyes at the coolness of his fingers as they brushed against her skin sending goose bumps running down her arms.

Seeing the faintest scar of the imprint of teeth on the base of her neck and shoulder Scorpius let his thumb gently trace along the discolored skin, his hand lingered on her warm body. Feeling her pulse as it pounded against his skin, matching his heart rate.

Forcing Rose's body to quiver she released a deep breath. Opening her eyes she said softly "I better get finished with that summary or else Cornell is going to have a fit."

Not realizing that he had been holding his breath, Scorpius inhaled slowly letting his hand drop as she let go of her hair so that it would fall back behind her neck. "Here are those files" she said quickly, standing up from her crouched position.

"Thanks," Scorpius said adjusting his tone.

"No problem," she paused a moment by his desk, thinking over something "What are you doing tonight?" she asked timidly.

"Probably reading why?"

"Me and a couple of my friends were going to meet up for dinner and I thought maybe you would like to join us." She said, knowing that she was the only person Scorpius really knew in New York.

"You're inviting me to dinner?" he asked.

"Yes," she said smoothly "I figured that you have yet to actually go out besides for work and you might enjoy yourself, however if you want to stay shoved up in your apartment go right on ahead," Turning around she walked back to her desk letting Scorpius pounder her offer.

After a few minutes of debating he said "I'll go."

* * *

"So how are you adjusting to New York?" Carla asked politely taking a bite of her salad.

Rose looked to Scorpius who was sitting between her and Matt at the circular table "It's defiantly an adjustment, but I like it so far." She heard Scorpius say.

"That's good," Carla commented.

"So what's the biggest difference so far from here and London?" Matt asked curious.

"I have never seen an auror department with so much paperwork." Scorpius grumbled.

Matt laughed "We are thorough,"

"Thorough?" Rose repeated raising an eyebrow to Matt "You should see what you get after you settle a case."

Scorpius couldn't help but feel as if she might be exaggerating "How could it be worse than the files I was looking at earlier." Recalling that each of those were about and two inches thick.

Rose didn't respond immediately, "Try double."

Scorpius stared dumbfounded "Crickey, that would be thicker than our Hogwarts records."

"Now don't over exaggerate, our Hogwarts files weren't that thick." She stated quickly looking to Matt and Carla. "Besides most of the paperwork in the auror department is basically signing your name a hundred times." She tried changing the subject.

"We had two each." Scorpius pushed on.

Reaching out for her glass of water Rose shook her head "That was because McGonagall had to micro manage everything." Those files kept an extremely detailed profile of just about every incident that they had ever been involved in while at Hogwarts. When one read the file they would have thought that McGonagall was in the room with them, taking notes while they dueled it out. These incidents happened just about every other day for five years. Information which Rose didn't really want to share.

"So you knew Rose when she was in school?" Matt probed taking more of an interest in the conversation.

Scorpius nearly choked on his water as he noticed the interrogating eye that Matt was giving him. "Matt I thought that we agreed that we weren't going to talk about this?" Carla said reaching her hand out and giving Matt's shoulder a squeeze.

"If the topic didn't come up but they brought it up so…" he said in a matter of factly tone.

Carla looked at Rose in an _I tried _way, "Yes Matt," Rose had a sharp tone to her voice as she focused her eyes on cutting the stake in front of her "We have known each other since we were eleven."

Matt looked as if he was about to ask another question when Carla quickly asked "So Rose told me that you like to read…"

But she was interrupted "What was Rose like in school?" Rose usually kept her mouth shut about her days at Hogwarts.

"Matt seriously," Rose said giving her friend a dark look.

"What I'm curious." He said as if it was nothing, placing his eyes on Scorpius.

Scorpius gave Rose an odd look, not sure what he was supposed to say. "She had a bit of a temper," he tried figuring that was common knowledge.

"Well that hasn't changed," Matt mumbled lightly, taking a swig of his beer.

"So I've noticed." Scorpius said giving Rose and wry eye which she ignored.

Matt laughed "She can do a hell of a hex," he commented.

Scorpius face perking up "That's for sure, she ripped my fingernails out in our third year." Rose's face went white her eyes wide, almost at a loss for words.

Matt looked at Rose with a shocked but impressed look. "Did you really?"

"Why would you do that?" Carla added.

"Because he was being a prat," she quickly stated not revealing the fact that two days earlier he had just broken her nose. Eger to move away from the subject she said "I think we have had enough of this conversation." Rose raised her hand avoiding Matt's scrutinizing gaze as she scratched the back of her head where the scar was.

"Quit picking at that thing you're going to make it bleed again." Matt stated taking on a parental voice.

Immediately Scorpius' face went from relaxed, to worry and concern as he leaned into Rose "Your scar opened?" he said softly.

Rose gave a deep sigh as she looked at him "It was nothing really," she lowered her hand.

"Rose!" his voice was serious.

"It really is none of your business." she stated giving the same serious tone as he.

Scorpius shook his head growing annoyed at the relaxed nature of her response "If it is anyone's business it's mine," he pointed out.

"Its fine Scorpius," she responded in a voice she knew would calm him "I swear," she gave a warning look for him not to continue pushing the subject.

Scorpius pulled his eyes away from Rose as he stared at the plate of food in front of him.

"How is it his business and not mine?" Matt asked coming to the realization that Rose wasn't hiding a little bit about her past but all of it and that Scorpius Malfoy played bigger role than she originally let on.

Both Rose and Scorpius remained silent neither one of them looking Matt in the eye. "Because," Scorpius started.

"Scorpius," Rose not even attempting to hold back the dark warning in throat.

Lifting his eyes up to hers with a hard glare he finished "Because I'm the one who gave it to her." He paused before he added "I gave her all of her injuries."

Matt's voice became stern and emotionless as he said "What's he talking about?" When neither one of them respond he clarified with his voice slightly more aggressive "What injuries is he talking about Rose?"

"Twelve broken fingers, fourteen broken toes, seven broken noses, six broken ankles, one broken leg, nine broken wrist and seven broken ribs." Scorpius said softly still looking to the table the look of guilt hammered on his face.

Rose took a heavy breath as she looked at the hurt look in Matt's eyes "So much for telling each other everything." He stated smoothly getting up from his seat and walking out the door. Carla stared at Rose momentarily with a shocked look on her face. Giving an apologetic simile she went after Matt.

Rose glued her eyes to the table a hard expression forming on her face. Turning to Scorpius "Tell me something, is this what it's going to be like? I try to be polite to you and you shove it back in my face?" She paused "Did I ever come to your office and share all your bad history?" She didn't wait for a response "Was I not respectful enough to take the back way when I visited my father so that you wouldn't have to see me?" She looked at him with glazed eyes.

"How am I supposed to know what I should and should not talk about, because to me it seems like you haven't told them anything." He countered.

"Your right I haven't" she shot back "But that doesn't mean you get the right to tell them."

"It's my history too," He stated.

"Yes but this is my life, and my job, with my friends." It was the first time Scorpius had seen Rose demonstrate any form of emotion besides rage since he had been in New York. "That is my roommate, and my partner both of which I am going to have to be around when you leave. It isn't some joke."

"You can't run from your past Rose."

Rose gave a curt laugh "Obviously not or you wouldn't be sitting here," her tone expressing that she was completely over the current circumstances.

"Do you really think that I want to be here in this situation with you?" he interjected.

Scowling she stood up "Then do us both a favor and leave," her voice implying that this had nothing to do with the pervious conversation.

Laying her napkin on the table to excuse herself she added "And if you're wondering why I don't tell anyone about our fights it's not because I am trying to run from my past. It's because I don't like to give people a reason to want to hate you before they've properly met you, and see that you would never hurt me,"

Scorpius looked down at his hands as Rose walked out of the restaurant calling after Matt.

* * *

"You shouldn't have pushed it Matt," Carla had her arms crossed as she gave Matt an angry look, they were standing about ten feet away from the restaurant's exit.

"She has been lying to us for years Carla, how does that not bother you?" He countered, not entirely sure if he was angry or upset about the sudden revelations.

Carla took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the warm June air. "It does bother me but..." she fell silent "It's Rose," she reasoned.

Matt shook his head "I know and that's what makes this so ridiculous. She is the one person I am supposed to be able to trust, without a doubt, with my life," he pointed his finger towards the restaurant. "And right now I don't even know who she is. She mind as well be a stranger, I mean for Merlin's sake is she even British?" Looking down to the sidewalk he cursed.

"That's a bit of an extreme." Carla stated sarcastically.

"Well we wouldn't know that would we." His teeth were gritted together, looking up to meet Carla's eyes he softened his voice "She's lead us on like fools, making us believe that she was some shy bookworm who kept to herself in school." Matt paused to think about his next words "Does that not hurt you?" he asked lowering his voice, wondering how Carla didn't seem as upset as he was, Rose was her friend too.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you." Rose said coming up behind them, pulling Matt and Carla from their conversation.

Matt could hardly look at Rose as she spoke. "But you have to understand there are a lot of things about my school years that I am not proud of, and hating Scorpius Malfoy is one of those things."

"It seems like he did more damage to you than you did to him." Matt retorted.

Rose shook her head no "Believe me when I say everything he did to me I deserved because chances are I did something equally as horrid to him." Giving Matt and Carla a sincere look she continued "I had that school in the palm of my hand until I was seventeen. I played the role of the perfect daughter, the perfect student, the perfect friend, and even the perfect victim to perfection. I manipulated people for years and the only person that ever saw right through me from day one was Scorpius and I despised him for it."

Taking a slow breath she felt the adrenalin pulse through her veins. "We hated each other for years. We were ruthless and we would go out of our ways to hunt each other down, just so we could duel." Carla noticed as Rose's eyes changed to a look of sympathy and regret. "We dueled every day for years, to the point that our headmistress wanted to expel us." A look of disgust plagued her face as she finished. "We would beat each other to a bloody pulp and we were proud of it. It was like a game to us and what's worse is that we got some sort of twisted kick out of it."

The air around them was thick and silent, she waited for Matt and Carla to respond only they didn't, both of them having horrified expressions. Rose looked down to the ground her face as if it was cast in stone. "I never meant to fool you. That is a part of my past that I don't share with anybody. I was mean and I hate who I was then."

She looked at them with pleading eyes "Please believe me when I say that I am not the same person I was back then." She paused before adding "And neither is he."

Matt's tone was still hard "So you don't hate him anymore?"

"Not even close," Rose responded quickly.

"Why is that?" Matt raised an eyebrow, he wanted answers and he wanted them now.

Rose's lips flinched, bending her head down "I can't," she whispered.

"ROSE!" He yelled becoming agitated.

"I'm not getting into that Matt." Her voice was cursed with venom. "The point is that we have moved past our differences."

Matt uncrossed his arms, not dropping the stony glare "Whatever," he said turning his back to her.

"Matt," she called after him but he didn't listen "Matt where are you going," she tried again.

"To my apartment, I do happen to pay to live there." He shot back to her.

Rose watched as he stormed off. Carla gave her a half smile "I love him but sometimes he can be such a jerk."

Giving a slight nod Rose felt mentally and emotionally exhausted "Yeah but this time he has the right to be upset." she said still trying to process what had happened.

A/N: So there was some Scor/Rose moments, what did you think of Rose's explanation for Scorpius and about her past. Please let me know what you think and review. Thank you so much for reading.


	5. Stake Out Shocks

**Chapter 5**

Carla kept her eyes closed listening at the coffee pot in the office break room as it slowly dripped glorious droplets of caffeine into her cup. It was still dark outside and she wondered how anyone could possibly wake up this early on a daily basis.

Yawning obnoxiously loud she couldn't help but hear Rose's nagging voice in the back of her head telling her that if she wouldn't procrastinate on her case reviews then she could avoid these early morning rituals which occurred once a month. However once again here she was at 5:30 in the morning looking as if she hadn't even bothered to get ready and her hair thrown in a bun.

It also didn't help that she hardly slept during the weekend, because the two most important people in her life refused to talk to each other leaving her to be stuck in the middle. It was stressful attempting to comfort Rose and at the same reason with Matt. She could understand why Rose would want to keep that information about her past quiet and to be honest the Rose that she described she had a hard time believing was the same person. Yes Rose had a temper when she got angry but that was actually very rare, with the exception of the past few weeks Carla had only seen Rose truly loose her temper once and it was when her parents came to visit two years ago for Christmas.

Rose had been in an ill mood all day on Christmas Eve. They all had just finished dinner and her father was mentioning something about how happy her brother Hugo was with his current girlfriend and how he wished that he could see his little Rosie that happy.

Rose's face had become blood red as she spat in a dark tone "You could have." Carla had never seen two people become so enraged as quickly as they had.

Mr. Weasley's face taking on its own deep shade of scarlet screamed "DO WE REALLY HAVE TO HAVE THIS CONVERSATION AGAIN FOR THE FOURTH TIME?"

"WHY NOT? YOU'RE THE ONE THAT BROUGHT UP THE SUBJECT OF ME BEING HAPPY, YOU'RE JUST NOT WILLING TO ACCEPT HOW." She seethed with anger.

Rose's mother gave Carla an awkwardly tender look tilting her head to the door, suggesting that they go get some fresh air while they let the two of them argue it out. While in the coffee shop down the street Carl mentioned "He still not too thrilled about her deciding to live in New York," assuming that that was what the argument was about because it was what most of their arguments centered around, her having decided to stay there permanently a couple of months prior.

Mrs. Weasley casually nodded her head although the expression on her face would have suggested that it was about something else entirely. About an hour and a half later Rose and her father showed up in the coffee shop looking as if nothing had occurred and that they were as close as ever.

Carla could also see Matt's point of view as well, he had been nothing but honest with Rose from the day they met and he had willingly believed that she was just as honest with him. They both had their reasons for why they were right and they both had reasons for why they were wrong. Rose's past didn't bother Matt he had accepted it and thought no different of her than he had the day before, because he did love Rose.

What Matt's biggest issue was that Rose didn't willingly tell him. He found out because she was forced to talk about it and Rose knew him well enough to know that he would have never judged her for something like that and yet she still didn't trust him enough to tell him herself. He would never admit it, but Carla knew that that was what was killing him inside. That her lack of trust was the knife wedged in his back.

Covering the back of her mouth as she made another loud yawn she let her eyes blissfully close for a moment, the stinging sensation feeling so good that she could have fallen asleep there.

Sighing she opened her eyes again figuring that if she narrowed her eyes at the coffee pot it might make time go by faster, there was always the option of magic, but she had to admit that although magic made everyday things much more convenient, it had little effect on coffee. She would either make it too hot or cold, and sometimes the actual coffee grains themselves would find their way into her cup, proving the point that even a witch or wizard had to learn the meaning of patience.

So lost in her quiet sate she was shocked when she heard the break room door open up beside her as someone shuffled through and open the fidge door to place something inside.

"Morning," she half-heartedly mumbled.

"Morning," the male British accent responded.

Peeking her eyes open at the person who was in front of her, Carla made an attempt to straighten her posture as she watched Scorpius reach for a plastic cup, fill it with water, and then put in the microwave to heat. She wasn't sure what exactly to say, seeing as how they had all but left him alone in the restaurant, her going after Matt and Rose going home. "Why are you here so early?" she asked attempting to fill the awkward silence that was between them.

"I had to get some files sent back to my boss in London, and I know how clogged the Flu mail system can become in the afternoon so…" he let the sentence fall.

"Isn't London only like four hours ahead of us though?" Carla asked still confused as to why he had to come in at this time of morning.

Scorpius gave a slight smirk, Carla may not seem to catch on to things that much, but to him it seemed like she understood a lot more than she let on. "I don't sleep much anymore."

Taking a deep breath she let her hands fall from their crossed position, wondering if the coffee pot was even working now, they had been complaining for years to get a new one but Cornell always found a better place to put the budget money. "Sorry about Friday." She said softly.

Scorpius gave an odd expression "Oh it's alright, I'm used to that sort of reaction, especially from Rose."

She knew that he was saying it just to be nice but that didn't exclude the fact that it had been extremely rude of them. Finally seeing the green light on the coffee pot appear she walked over to it pulling the warm cup out and adding sugar and cream to it. "Do you mind me asking, you knew that it was going to upset her right,"

Scorpius didn't respond although he did start to pay very close attention to the cup in the microwave that he was pulling out and pouring into his mug. Reaching into the cabinets for the box of tea bags Scorpius felt his body become stiff.

"So why did you mention it if you knew that it was going to upset her?"

Turning to Carla he crossed his arms "What exactly has she told you?"

"Only that you used to hate each other that she hated who she was when she used to fight you,"

Dropping the tea bag into his cup "Rose is one of the few people who has ever been able to bring out the worst of me and the best of me." Continuously raising the tea bag in and out of the warm water, "I didn't say it to upset her. The thing about Rose is that she isn't very good when it comes to confronting problems. She will argue to the day she dies that she isn't running, but deep down inside she is. " He sighed softly staring at the brown liquid in the cup "Now don't get me wrong I don't particularly like to talk about my past either, and believe me I have done my fair share of avoiding it but unlike Rose I have accepted it for what it is. I can't just forget what happened and pretend that there wasn't a history between us." Scorpius could feel his chest start to tighten up when he whispered the words "I won't."

"Not to pry but…" she started softly.

"You know I hate it when people say not to pry," Scorpius interrupted "It's like saying not to sound like a hypocrite, only something that is extremely hypocritical can be said."

Carla closed her mouth and stared Scorpius down, as he gave the notion that he wasn't going to talk any more about the subject "Point taken," she said with a laugh as she grabbed the door to get back to her work.

* * *

Rose sat in the chair in front of the window, pulling the strands of her curly red hair in front of her and counting the split ends that she had. She normally put a little more effort into her cases but this one was absolutely ridiculous. She understood why Cornell had given them such an easy case, to test their partnership and see how well Scorpius would be in New York, but judging by Scorpius interest in the seventies carpet print, rose would guess that he was just as bored and offend as she was.

"Anything interesting happen yet?" he grumbled, sitting cross legged on the bed, his elbows on his knees and his cheeks squished by his knuckles

"No" Rose groaned pulling the curtain to the Motel room shut the realization that Harper Willcoat was staying put for the night, not taking the chance of being seen by the police, although the police were the least of his concerns if he turned out to be the Harper Willcoat in Rose and Scorpius' case.

They were almost a hundred percent sure that they had tracked down the muggle who was helping his wizard brother break into Wizard houses and stealing artifacts to sell to dark Wizards.

Rose couldn't help but roll her eyes at the pages in the file, these brothers weren't only careless they were just plain stupid, "This is such a rookie case," she complained, throwing the papers back to the floor where they had been laying all-night long.

Shaking her head she yawned they were supposed to be aurors, great dark wizard catchers, these two boys weren't even good enough to be the minions of a dark wizard, they were just scoundrels looking for an easy way to make some cheap cash. In fact if hadn't been for the fact that Clark Willcoat was a wizard and the artifacts held some sort of magical charm, this case would have just gone to the police.

Scorpius straightened his back from his hunched position, blinking his eyes a few times, to get the colliding vision of the carpet pattern out of his mind. He would have preferred to just go raid and interrogate Harper Willcoat once they first found him, seeing as how they knew without a doubt that he was the correct guy, but it was his first case here so he was somewhat restrained to playing by the book, and actually wait for some sort of evidence to confirm what they already knew.

Scorpius wasn't sure how to feel he was grateful to be out of the office and actually have something productive to do, not staring at paperwork all day, but sitting in a motel room with a _working_ air conditioner, and bed sheets that probably hadn't been washed since the eighties wasn't exactly the type of productivity he had in mind.

Pulled back and forth on the chains that controlled the curtain "What are you doing?"

"The guy is completely nutts, he keeps looking between his blinds to the street, at first I thought it was because he was waiting for someone but seeing as how he has done every ten minutes for eight hours I think he is just paranoid."

Scorpius nodded, "You know I put a tracer spell on his door, when we first got here, if he opens it we will know."

Rose scrunched her face, closing the curtain for a final time. Turning around in her chair, which she was slouched down in. "The only problem is that we are still stuck waiting until someone either comes…"

"Or goes," Scorpius finished.

Rose hadn't mentioned anything about Friday night, which didn't surprise Scorpius, actually the fact that she even said hello to him that morning was somewhat shocking to him, and admittedly it wasn't a pleasant hello, more of a growl.

Other than that it was pretty much the same as last week, she would speak when spoken too, and her sentences were short and to the point, the only difference was that today it didn't seem to be so much as directed at him, but more of to anyone who talked to her.

Rose looked around the cramped room, with the old television in it, the one bed and a small bathroom, she supposed that this was an ideal place for a couple who was having an affair to come and shag during their lunch break, at least that's what the front desk attendant seemed to be thinking when they asked for a room and he had raised eyebrows with a smirk, giving Scorpius a wink as they paid.

Sighing she let her eyes land on Scorpius, it was through these stake outs that she and Matt had gotten to know each other so well. Extending her leg she kicked the mattress of the bed jerking Scorpius' attention to her. "So what book did you bring?"

"What makes you think I brought a book?" said Scorpius, looking up to meet Rose's stare.

Raising her eyebrows Rose rolled her head and crossed her arms, beaming her eyes to him in a knowing way, "Seriously?"

"_The Lost World of Creatures Unknown,_" he said momentarily. "You?"

"_The Truth Beyond Fiction,_"

Scorpius gave a slight nod to his head "It any good?"

"It would be better if I read more fiction, but it brings up some interesting points." Rose stated simply, fiddling with her wand like she were a drummer in a band.

More silence fell between them, Scorpius bending his head back down now focusing on the bedspread that he was sitting on.

Biting her lip, unable to sit in total silence for another eight hour she asked "Are Stacy and Bryan pregnant?"

Scorpius shot his head up in surprise, it was common knowledge that Stacy was pregnant, but he was shocked that Rose knew, seeing as how she didn't seem to talk to anyone, except her family, from London.

"Oh for crying out loud I can add Scorpius," Rose stated unfolding her arms, "You aren't with someone for two months, and decided to get married unless you're pregnant."

"So you don't believe that two people can fall in love and diced to spend the rest of their lives together in only two months?"

Straightening herself up in the chair "No I don't, in fact think that the entire institution of marriage is a bit ridiculous." She said matter of factly.

"Oh I have got to hear this theory," said Scorpius in a sarcastic way.

Meeting his crystal eyes "Think about marriage is an institution where you have better chance of failing than succeeding. It is beyond me why someone would willingly enter into that knowing that they are going to fail."

"It's a fifty fifty chance that it will succeeded, not all marriages fail," Scorpius said letting his legs drop from his crossed position and onto the floor as he leaned forward.

"Now that is a joke, the only reason that it is fifty fifty is because the fifty percent that are still married haven't gotten divorced yet, and the ones that are divorced are simply getting remarried again." She paused "The question that they should be asking isn't if one has a successful marriage, but how many times one has been married because more likely than not the answer is probably two to three times, not once."

"There is something almost heart breaking about the way you think Rose," Scorpius looked at her with tender eyes his voice almost a whisper "Marriage is meant to be a risk, your right that most people end up getting a divorced, but the few who don't those were the people willing to fight through the hard times together. They believed that their love was so strong that they wouldn't let what they had fall into a statistic." He paused looking away from Rose for a moment only to re-meet her gaze which had a curious expression "I'm not saying that marriage is supposed to be easy, because it's not. I'm just saying that if you love someone so much to marry them, then you should love them enough to fight for them for the rest of your life."

Rose had to force herself to pull her eyes away from Scorpius' intense stare, he had always been good at being passionate, if he believed in something he had a way of making everyone else believe it too if they were willing to listen, that's why he would always whip her when it came to debates in Hogwarts.

Hunching forward Rose leaned against her knee and let her head look to the ground as she thought about what to say next "I understand that the concept of marriage isn't completely ridiculous. I mean look at my parents, they are just as in love now as they were when they were seventeen. I just could never picture myself doing that."

"So you never wanted to get married?" asked Scorpius.

Rose shook her head, a spare pieces of a curl falling free from the loose braid she had "No, not even when I was a little girl," Said Rose thoughtfully.

"I'm assuming that you hate weddings as well?" Scorpius inquired.

"I can't deny the fact that you do know me," she said off handedly looking up to meet his eyes only to realize that their faces were almost touching from the lack of space between the bed and the chair along with them both sitting in a similar position.

"And what's your rationalization on that?" his voice was slow and precise.

Biting on her lip again "To me a wedding doesn't prove the love people have for one another." She went silent her breathing slow and controlled, as Scorpius could feel it press against his skin "If, and that's a big IF, but if I loved someone so much that I decided to marry them I sure as hell wouldn't spend months planning a wedding for a bunch of people that I didn't know, I would just go ahead and get married. I shouldn't even have to think twice about it because the thought of spending another second not bound to the person that I love would seem almost…"

"Unbearable," he whispered his eyes locked on hers.

The slightest touch of heat started to rise in her cheeks. "Exactly," she heard herself say, but was taken off guard by the look that Scorpius was giving her, and yet she was unable to pull away from it.

He wasn't sure what but something in her expression lit up, something that made him want to reach out his hand and tuck the spare piece of hair behind her ear like he had done so many times before, and he probably would have lost control if a white spark hadn't flown out from his pocket, where his wand was, pulling both Rose and Scorpius out of their trance.

Quickly Rose jumped to her feat pulling the curtain open as she looked down to the Harper Willcoat's room. The man was standing in the doorway with grungy white shirt, a baseball cap and jeans, looking extremely anxious.

"You are right by the way," Scorpius said from behind her his arm leaning against the window frame, as he looked out, "Stacy is pregnant."

"I knew it," said Rose with slight satisfaction, squinting her eyes to the door on the bottom floor across from them, as a woman with short black hair stood in the parking lot looking back and forth before walking inside Harper Willcoat's door.

Rose's eyes widened as she turned her head towards the direction of Scorpius who had the same stunned and concerned expression on his face "You recognized her right?"

Scorpius gave a slight nod his fist tightening around the wood of the window frame. "Angelica Warwick,"

"But, I remember catching her she's in Azkaban,"

"Apparently not," Scorpius mumbled,

Rose turned around leaning against the window with a confused look, "But what would she want with two idiots like Willcoats, I mean he's a muggle."

"I guess that's for us to figure out," Said Scorpius still looking out the window to the door.

A/N: Alright I really enjoyed writing a scene from Carla's perspective so I hope that you enjoyed it too, along with the little insight to Rose over the past few years. I hope you liked the scene between Rose and Scorpius. Tell me what you think and thank you for reading.


	6. Sleepless Nights

**Chapter 6**

"What do you mean they let Angelica Warwick out of Azkaban?" Rose practically yelled. "The woman is certifiably insane."

"True," Scorpius stated his eyes focusing on the papers at hand "but, she offered to exchange information on Alexander in order for a lighter sentence, and seeing as how she was only an accomplice, and she didn't actually kill anybody, they took the deal." Scorpius lifted his head to meet Rose, she was leaning back in her chair with a look of utter frustration on her face.

Rose furrowed her forehead, tapping a finger on the arm of the chair as she was deep in thought. "They're twins right?" she asked after a moment.

Plopping the folder on his desk Scorpius nodded once for yes. He watched Rose casually tilted her head, as if she didn't really need an answer only confirmation. He saw as she fixed her eyes on nothing in particular on her desk, but the gears in her head clicking together like clockwork. When something didn't make sense she always became somewhat distant trying to piece the problem together.

Scorpius had to admit that it didn't make sense as to why Angelica Warwick would sell her brother out the way she did, but at the same time he had met some wizards who would do much worse to avoid Azkaban.

Rose closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose, and taking slow breaths in and out. She looked exhausted, and Scorpius could probably assume that she felt exhausted as well, and he couldn't really blame her. It was late Wednesday evening and they had been up since Monday morning. Scorpius was pretty tiered himself but with his recent insomnia sleeping was rare and hard to come by for more than a couple of hours at best, so as annoying as it was he had learnt to push through and deal with it.

From the way she looked she could have been sleeping, "Rose," he said softly, noticing as most people had cleared out of the office, ready for their weekend.

Not moving she made a futile attempt at a "Humm?"

Scorpius gave a slight laugh to himself "Rose go home and get some sleep,"

Opening her eyes she blinked a few times, "I'm fine," she yawned straightening herself up in her chair. She felt anything but fine, but this was her job and sometimes a lack of sleep was the price she had to pay for it.

"You're not fine… your tired. Go home and get some rest Angelica Warwick doesn't have the numbers to do anything drastic yet, and Harper Willcoat will still be here for interrogating on Monday." He tried to persuade.

"I said I'm fine," she spoke softly and gentle.

Scorpius sighed shaking his head "You're useless if you're tired and you can't concentrate."

That seemed to grasp Rose's attention because she reluctantly agreed to go home.

* * *

Rose couldn't explain it there was something about Angelica Warwick that wasn't right. She remembered reading in the original case file that Angelica and Alexander were inseparable, where there was one, there was always the other.

Yawning she let the wet hair from her shower dampen the back of her black tank top as she crawled into bed. Turning off the light she laid down allowing her body relax under the covers. _Where there is one, there is the other._ She repeated the line in her head a dozen times. _Where there is one, there is the other. Where there is one, there is the other. Where there is one, there is the other. Where there is one, there is the other. _The wheels in her mind were going so fast that that they could have blown steam _Where there is _"One"_, there is the _"Other," she said slowly, "One and other," and then almost as if her world had stopped, "Son of a bitch," the wheels had clicked "One another,"

Rose didn't care how tired she was she bolted straight out of bed threw on a pair of old sweat paints and went straight for the door.

* * *

Scorpius was in his bed reading when a sudden bang from his door pulled his thoughts back into the room. Raising an eyebrow he looked at his watch it was just past eleven. The banging become a constant stream of pounding as he got up and walked to the door scratching the back of his neck. He was almost a hundred percent sure of who it was, and when he opened the door he found Rose. Her hand clinched in a fist midway in the air preparing to bang again.

"You do know that the concept of sleep actually involves sleeping?" He said leaning into the door frame.

"I will I promise," she said quickly shoving past Scorpius and into his apartment, "I just need to check something."

Scorpius shut the door, "What the blood hell could you possibly need to check that couldn't wait until Monday?"

But she didn't answer instead she asked "Where are my mother's books?"

Scorpius scrunched up his face, "Third shelf to the right," he said nodding to the large bookcase in the living room.

Rose started to trace her fingers across the titles of the books mumbling them to herself until she stopped at one and pulled it out, _Two as One: The Tracy Ringgold Mystery_. Opening it up towards the back she began to skim the pages. Finding what she was looking for she met Scorpius confused gaze and smiled "You were the one who wrote the original file on Alexander Warwick." Rose stared at Scorpius as he walked a few feet in front of her.

"Your point,"

"You even said that Alexander was the more dominate of the two. So isn't it odd that Angelica would sell him out with them being so close. Angelica would do just about anything her brother told her too. She wouldn't have sold him out like that."

"But she did Rose," Said Scorpius in an indifferent tone.

Rose quickly shook her head "No she didn't, Alexander did,"

Scorpius gave Rose a concerned look, the sleep deprivation must have been getting to her. "What are you talking about?"

Walking toward him she shoved the book into his hands, pointing out where to read. Watching as she read Rose began to feel the slightest bit unnerved, for the first time noticing that he wasn't actually in a shirt. Her checks slightly flushing red she looked away from him, and to the apartment.

It may have seemed a bit odd that she would randomly show up at his apartment at eleven o'clock at night, but he had given her his address for an in case of emergency situation. Even though no one was bleeding or dead Rose couldn't help but think that this revelation was a sort of emergency that she should tell her partner about. And since it seemed that she hadn't woken him, she didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about doing it.

She used to do this to Matt all the time, which was always awkward because of where he lived, because it was far, and she was always forced to walk there because of the spells set up around his apartment so that nobody could apparate inside. Admittedly things got better once he started sleeping with Carla and she only had to go down the hall to wake him but still this wasn't unusual for her.

Scorpius looked up to Rose with wide eyes, the gears in his own head coming to the same conclusion. "They're linked," he whispered.

Rose gave a satisfied nod as she crossed her arms "It's rare, but almost always between twins. The act of physically being able to transfigure yourself into the others body, as long as the both stay in the opposites form then…"

"They will remain as one another," Scorpius finished with slight smirk.

Rose snapped her fingers "Exactly,"

"The only problem is that we still don't know what he wants with the Willcoats, only that we are dealing with Alexander instead of Angelica." Scorpius closed the cover of the book, walking over to his shelf to put it back in its rightful place.

"That's part of the reason why I came here, you said that you had originated the case on Warwick, and I was wondering did you keep any information that didn't go into the file you sent two years ago?"

He nodded, most aurors gathered up so much information on a wizard that they were stuck picking and choosing which to add into the case file and which to discard. Very rarely did an auror have to go back to this discarded information but occasionally something could have been over looked.

"Do you mind if I look through it?"

"There really isn't much to it Rose," Explained Scorpius, but when he looked in to her eyes, which had an almost hopeful gleam in them, he knew that nothing he said would change her mind. "Sit down I'll go get it," he nodded to his couch turning around to walk back into his room.

The second Rose sat down she felt the sleeplessness of the past three days wash over her. It was as if now that her brain had solved the problem it could turn off and allow her some peace. The last waves of energy that she had were extinguished and she was running off of pure nothing. Closing her eye momentarily she felt the bitter sweet stinging sensation, rubbing them she attempted to force herself to push on.

* * *

It had taken about ten minutes to find the card board box which he had placed his old Warwick information in. "I really don't think that you are going to find anything," he said carrying the box down the hall seeing the back of Rose's head. When she didn't respond he placed the box on breakfast bar and walked around to the front of his couch.

Scorpius couldn't help but get a large grin as he crossed his arms, staring at a very still and very asleep Rose Weasley.

"She tried," he muttered to himself, noticing how the pads of her finger tips were still across her eyes.

Sighing he walked over to her, slipping one arm under her knees and the other around her back. He lifted her up in his tight grip careful not to wake her. Almost instantaneously her head bent into the crook of his neck and her arm subconsciously wrapping itself across his shoulders, standing still from the shock of the movement he was frozen in place, feeling her slow breaths beat against his skin.

Scorpius took a shaky breath as he began to walk towards his room, gently laying her down on his bed where he had been only a half hour before. Moving his hands to her feet, he untied the laces of her shoes; removing them he tucked her legs under the sheet. Pulling the blanket across her body he lingered over her for a moment. She was so peaceful when she slept, her expression content and free.

Rose was tugging on the strings of his heart, and tonight he let her. Lowering himself so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed, he allowed himself to lose control, carefully letting his fingers trace the outline of her face, the back of his hand skimming across her cheek, brushing free strands of hair out of her face.

Swallowing a deep breath he closed his eyes and held it. He had never let himself feel so much for her in six years. Closing his eyes for a moment Scorpius, let his hand linger on her cheek, his thumb brushing it lightly.

His heart became heavy in his chest and his stomach dropped, he took slow heavy breaths as he let himself continue to feed into his desire. The feeling was almost torturous but he let it consume him as it took over every aspect of his body, the emotions of joy and pain buddle up into one. It was the feeling of what could have been, and the realization of what it was.

Opening his eyes he leaned forward, tenderly pressing his lips to her forehead. "Oh Rose," he whispered softly lifting himself up. Grabbing the book off his bed side table he pulled the chain to his lamp, coating her in darkness as he walked out the room closing the door silently behind him.

* * *

The next morning Rose awoke feeling rested and relaxed that was until she looked around the room and realized she had no clue where she was. Sitting up her eyes wide and full of confusion as the light streamed in through the window. She recalled talking to Scorpius last night about Warwick but surly she didn't… She did. She must have fallen asleep.

Using her hand to cover her mortified expression, she could feel the heat radiate from her face because of how embarrassed she was. How could she have let that happen?

Rose got up and went towards the door, mentally preparing herself to having to explain what happened last night. Opening the door she nervously walked out of the room to the hall.

There was something oddly comforting about hearing the crunching sound of paper and him clearing his throat, even though she couldn't see him. Coming to the end of the hall she observed Scorpius as he leaned against his kitchen counter reading the Daily Prophet with a stern expression on his face. She watched as he lowered one of his hands picking up a mug which was beside him, he took a sip and put it down without pulling his eyes away from the paper, which for some reason made her smile.

Clearing her own voice "Hello," she said timidly.

Lifting his eyes to meet hers Scorpius smiled "Good morning," he said folding the paper in half and laying it on the counter. Turning around and grabbing a coffee mug from a cabinet and pouring what was left of the pot for her, waving his wand the mug carefully levitated over toward her.

Catching it Rose mumbled a "Thank you," as she took a sip. Walking over to the breakfast bar she placed the cup down and stared awkwardly at anything but him.

His apartment was very clean and neat, not much different from hers, except his walls had more of a beige coloring to them. Against the Wall he had two overly large book cases which were full from top to bottom and his entire front wall was glass with a sliding door to a patio.

Taking another sip of her coffee she heard Scorpius ask "You sleep well?"

Biting her lip she looked down the to the black liquid in the mug, glancing her eyes up to look at him she nodded "Sorry about that,"

Scorpius grabbing his own mug walked to the breakfast bar placing it across from her he shrugged as if this situation was an ordinary occurrence. They both took a sip of their coffees at the same time, awkwardly staring at each other. "You know you could have just left me on the couch or woken me up, you didn't have to give up your bed."

Scorpius shook his head "First of all if I had woken you up you would have stayed awake all night looking through those blasting files, and second that bed wasn't going to be used for more than a couple of hours anyways so it really wasn't an inconvenience."

Rose noticed how he didn't seem to have just woken up in fact he looked as if he had been awake for hours. He had a clean shave and was wearing a white tee shirt and what seemed to be an old pair of jeans "How long have you been up?" she asked.

"A few hours, I finally dozed off at about three, got up a little past four thirty."

Rose looked at the watch on her wrist noting that it was right at nine fifteen. "When was the last time you slept through the night?" She asked in a shocked expression.

Scorpius' eyes became wide as he thought of the answer. "I don't know four months," he estimated.

"Bad case," she guessed

Scorpius pursed his lips together and shook his head, "No just a lot on my mind," his posture became stiff and his eyes took on a dark tone as he slowly rose the mug to his lips taking what seemed to be a very controlled sip of coffee.

Rose took the hint knowing that the subject was off limits. Averting her gaze she noticed the box a couple of feet away from her. "Is that your Warwick files?"

This seemed to bring Scorpius back slightly as his eyes became less ridged and more egger, "Yeah," he said walking around the counter so that he was on the same side as Rose, grabbing the box he placed it on one of the stools between them. Lifting the lid he said "I'm not sure what you're hoping to find it is mostly just stuff about his childhood."

"It's a better start than we currently have." She stated pulling out one of the folders she pushed herself up onto one of the stools and began to open it. She could feel Scorpius as he fixed his eyes on her, slowly lifting her eyes "Is there something wrong?" She asked noticing the look of disbelief on his face and yet he still had a grin.

"Working on my day off that's exactly how I planned to spend my day." Scorpius laughed slightly as he pulled a similar looking file from the box.

Staring into his eyes "Do you want me to leave, I can take this stuff with me," Rose asked not sounding the least bit offended by his comment.

Scorpius thought a moment and shook his head, "No I want you to stay," he said flicking open the folder and propping himself up on the third stool.

"Alright then," she said the slightest hint of a smile played across her face, as she went back to reading.

A/N: So I hope that you liked the update, along with the little Scor/Rose moments here and there. Please let me know what you think about their relationship. Thank you so much for reading.


	7. Revelation

**Chapter 7**

"Where are you going?" Matt asked as Carla walked out of his bathroom wearing her work clothes from yesterday.

"Home," she stated walking across his room to her purse which was on his large dresser. She hated staying at Matt's with a passion. He lived on the twenty-seventh floor of a penthouse on the upper East Side of Manhattan and although the view was spectacular there was something oddly cold about the apartment. Nothing personal lay anywhere, everything was constantly clean, and the odd sculptures and rare paintings on the wall made the place feel like a museum more than a home, and to be honest she felt like she had to be careful for fear that she would break something.

"Why are you going home its Thursday?" he propped his arm up behind his head staring at the ceiling.

"Two reasons one, because I live there and I have got to get some laundry done, and two because I'm tired of being in the middle of this and you need to talk to Rose,"

"That's not fair," He mumbled a bit too loudly.

Giving an almost who cares look she stopped rifling through her purse and turned around crossing her arms "Oh it's not fair," she mocked "What are you four, grow up."

Matt pushed himself into a sitting position on his bed, avoiding Carla's annoyed expression he picked at an invisible piece of lint on his expensive sheets. "Come on Matt it has been two weeks. Not even you can stand to live in your apartment for two weeks." She argued "I mean seriously even before we started dating you would live on Rose's couch for weeks at a time."

Matt smirked to himself. It was true he hated his own home, he used to go out of his way to make up reasons on why he had to crash on Rose's couch and she never once complained, she would joke about hating it but she never gave him any actual crap.

That was one of the things that he loved about Rose, the fact that she just understood him. She understood the arrangement that he had with his parents, he have a very nice penthouse where all the other trust funded brats of CEO's and politicians lived, and they would keep their mouths shut about how he chose to spend his life. To them if they couldn't actually have a perfect family, at least they could have the appearance of a perfect family, and really the appearance was all that mattered in a political family. Also seeing as how he was the middle child and his older brother was a Governor and his younger sister was a Harvard medical student, his parents tended to play blind side to Matt anyways, after all giving birth to a wizard wasn't exactly something they could put on their _everything's perfect_ checklist.

Sighing Matt looked to Carla who had walked over to his side of the bed taking a seat, "I hate being mad at her," he admitted.

"I know you do," Carla said sweetly, extending her hand to Matt's nightstand grabbing one of her earrings.

"Do you think I'm overreacting?" he asked.

Carla stopped what she was doing and faced Matt, "I think that she's your best friend and that she hurt you and that is why I have cut you some slack the past few weeks, but it is becoming a bit excessive and now your only just hurting yourself."

"I just can't help but feel that she has been lying to me for nearly three years."

"And you never once kept anything hidden from her?"

"No," Matt shook his head "She knows everything. Like the time me and President Ashford's son snuck away from that convention and smoked a joint in his closet."

"Why his closet?" Carla interrupted.

"No cameras," Matt stated simply as if that should have been a fact. "Or about the time when me and my high school girlfriend had sex on my father's prized George Washington desk,"

"Okay I get the point," Carla waved an arm not particularly interested in Matt's previous sexual encounters.

"The point is that she knows everything, if she asked a question I answered it full out and held nothing back."

"Well Matt if it means anything I don't think she flat out lied to you, I think she tiptoed around the truth." She paused a minute before adding "I also think that Scorpius plays a bigger role in her past than she lets on."

That seemed to grab Matt's attention "What, you think that they were together?" he asked almost in a protective way.

"That's the thing I'm not sure, they almost seem too friendly with each other to have been together." Carla grabbed her other earring and began to fiddle with it.

"What do you mean?" He was now curious.

"Well at first I thought that they were, but this week they have been almost inseparable. I know that they are working on a case but it seems that they are spending every waking minute together." Carla sighed as she looked to Matt "I don't know about you but I'm not that friendly with any of my ex-boyfriends, I'm cordial at best and she brought him to that dinner…" She trailed off. "Maybe I'm just overthinking it but that doesn't seem like two people who have been in a relationship to me."

Giving a skeptical "Remember when she was…" Matt paused scrunching his face looking for the right word "What would you call it?"

"Shamelessly screwing my brother," Carla stated absentmindedly.

Matt gave her a wide eyed expression "Did you really just say that,"

"What, it's true," Carla shrugged, not seeming to have had a problem with it.

"It was more than that and you know it but still even when she was in that _thing_ with Rex, she kept her guard up the entire time." Matt thought "Maybe they just became good friends in school."

"But then why beat him up?" she pointed out.

"Maybe she found out that he was lying to her for years," Matt said darkly.

Carla rolled her eyes "Damn it talk to her," she said getting back to the original point.

"Fine I will after she settles her case," He groaned.

"That could be months from now," Carla argued.

Matt only shook his head, "No, if their spending every waking second together and they aren't sleeping together, then that means that they are about to move in on the catch,"

"And how do you know that?" Carla raised an eyebrow.

"Because I know Rose." He stated firmly.

* * *

"Are you sure this is the place," Rose asked walking up the third flight of stairs.

"Positive," Scorpius said coming to a halt at one of the doors in the dingy apartment complex. "Unlike you I actually work in the middle of the night," he joked.

"Oh shut up," Rose said noting the fact that every night that week she had been at his apartment until the late hours of the night and in the morning she would wake up to see that he had put her in his bed while he continued to work in the living room. So this morning when he said he finally figured out where Harper Willcoat's hiding place was, she was pleased to go for a catch.

Earlier that week they had raided the hotel room that Harper had kept himself locked up in that. In doing that they realized that the old hotel room was just being used as a meeting place for Harper, Clark, and Alexander. Scorpius collecting what little information that he could from the raid was able to track down their actual hiding place.

Pressing her ear to the door she listened for the slightest of noises. "I think he's here," she whispered turning to Scorpius.

* * *

Harper Willcoat took a long exaggerated breath as he studied the map that was in front of him, following the little red pin points around as if they were the only thing that mattered.

He was grateful for the quiet neither his brother Clark nor Alexander seeing any use for him beyond his ability to track people, which he was grateful for. To be honest he spent a majority of his day wondering what he had gotten himself into and on that particular day he was exceptionally vulnerable.

Carefully listening out the window for any sounds that might seem as if Warwick was coming inside, Harper opened his wallet and pulled out a small picture with frayed edges.

The little boy in the picture resembled him with his sandy blond hair and big brown eyes that any girl would be jealous of. Holding the picture in his hand he had it memorized, the goofy smile the little boy made, as he held a plastic yellow baseball bat in his hand, the slight edge of his wife's finger in the corner of the picture. For the life of her she couldn't manage to take a picture without her finger somehow sneaking his way in, but regardless he loved her.

Sighing he hid the picture between two credit cards, he only dared look at it during moments of weakness, for fear that Alexander might somehow use his family over him.

Harper was about to get back to the current map that he was studying when a loud cracking noise came from the outside hall and all of a sudden the door banged open so hard that he was shocked it didn't come off its hinges.

A Witch with red hair and a tall Wizard both stood in the door way and that was the last thing he remembered before seeing grey smoke fuming from the end of the man's wand causing him to fall unconscious.

* * *

Rose shook Harper roughly to pull him from the sleeping spell that Scorpius had used. Jerking forward so ferociously Rose thought that he would have come clear out of the chair had it not been for the ropes that Scorpius controlled around his body to hold him still.

Harper Willcoat shook his head as he looked to the wizards in front of him almost sizing them up to see who they were, they weren't part of Warwick's usual ranks but at this point anything that Warwick did didn't surprise him.

Scorpius held his wand tightly to Harper's neck, maintaining his control on the ropes; he could tighten them or loosen them based on how Willcoat decided to cooperate. "Do you know who we are?" Rose asked while letting her eyes gaze over every aspect of the room and then letting them fall back on Willcoat.

Harper only clinched his teeth together holding a tight expression, he wasn't talking until he had more information.

After the lack of response Rose looked to Scorpius "Are you sure you have those tight enough? I think I can see him still breathing." Rose asked almost playfully.

Scorpius shrugged his shoulders "I don't know, I thought so although if you think I should tighten them I always can," He said the words aimed more at Willcoat than to Rose. He knew that he had a pretty tight grasp on the ropes as it was and eventually Willcoat would give in.

Leaning forward so that she was right in Harper's face she asked "Once again do you know who we are,"

Harper attempted to breath, although it was becoming more and more difficult, taking heavy breaths he lowered his eyes away from Rose, shaking his head no.

Rose smirked "Well let me make it easy for you. We're aurors for the ministry and you have about five seconds to give us a good reason on why we shouldn't squeeze the bloody daylights out of you." She bluffed.

Harper still didn't say anything although Rose couldn't help but note that a sign of relief seemed to wash over him, which was odd. Stretching his neck Harper nodded to something on the desk, Rose, almost a hundred percent sure that the ropes around him restraining his speech, walked over to the desk she nodded for Scorpius to loosen the Rose slightly, having their only lead die on their watch wasn't exactly something that she wanted to have to explain.

The desk was messy and covered with maps that had red dots scattered across them, some of them were lighting up every few seconds or so. "Is this what I am supposed to be looking at?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

Harper shook his head "Wallet," he chocked.

Seeing the bulky wallet to the edge of the desk she picked up and began to rifle through it. Rose had honestly never seen a wallet full of so much useless stuff, he had old receipts along with credit cards that each had a different name on them, the only personal item in it was a picture of a young boy, which she was careful not to tear. Going through it she wasn't sure what it was that she was supposed to be looking for, starting to believe that he was sending her on a wild hunt she was about to give Scorpius the cue to tighten the ropes again, that was until she found it. The card that Harper Willcoat had wanted her to see, it wedged between about ten Credit cards for security purposes.

Quickly looking to the man he gave a sarcastic smirk along with a scowl as he nodded his head in a _you see _fashion. "Let him go," Rose said quickly almost yelling it to Scorpius.

"What?" Scorpius practically hissed as he looked at her with curious eyes seeing the almost terrified look that she was giving Harper for concern that he might be hurt.

Rose shook her head quickly "He's F.B.I. let him go,"

* * *

"Don't you think it's a little risky coming here?" Rose asked Harper as he leaned over his hamburger taking a large bite.

Harper shook his head looking at Rose and Scorpius in the seat across from him. He could tell that the hostess of the restaurant was annoyed when he requested a booth instead of a usual table, but a booth offered a more concealed hiding place the backs of them coming up to the top of his head so anyone walking along the sidewalk wouldn't see him through the window. Swallowing he shook his head "They'll think I'm out tracking, what was risky was staying there and letting someone walk in and see you two there."

Watching as he inhaled some fries, Rose sat abnormally close to Scorpius. Harper wiped his hands on a napkin before he scooted the plat out of his way and leaned over the table. "I knew eventually that the aurors would come looking, I couldn't have left a more obvious trail for them,"

Scorpius nodded taking the lead on the situation more for his own curiosity. "I'm sorry the F.B.I. is a muggle agency so why is it that they're involved?"

"As you know in London, there is really only a need for aurors to deal with Wizards because most of us live in groups and communities together, normally muggle interaction is very slim and if it does occur it's easy to just enhance their memories." Rose said turning to Scorpius.

"Yeah, I did go through the same program Rose," Scorpius said a bit on edge, partially because he wasn't sure if he could trust Willcoat just yet.

"Alright drop the attitude," She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes to Scorpius.

"Sorry," he mumbled sheepishly.

"Here in the States since Wizards are so dispersed it is easy for," she paused for the right word "Overlapping to occur."

Harper shook his head raising his hand to indicate for her to stop, not even he was following where Rose was leading with this "Let me explain. About twenty years ago the F.B.I. started to notice some unusual activities involving unexplainable occurrences and a team was sent out to investigate. Now luckily one of the leaders of the team who was a muggle actually had a sister who was born a Witch, and for that reason the aurors obviously couldn't alter his mind because he knew already." Harper paused to make sure that Scorpius was keeping up although by the very annoyed look on the man's face he could tell that stops wouldn't be necessary.

"Anyways, that night they also found half a dozen muggles that had been involved with the unusual occurrences, who deserved to be put in prison for the rest of their life, the only problem was that if they erased their memories then the muggles would get off with no punishment." Harper suddenly became quiet as the waitress came up beside the table laying the check down and taking the dirty plate with her. "For years there had been a problem with prosecuting muggles under the ministry of magic, because technically they weren't Wizards so they couldn't go to Azkaban. So after that case, the leader of the team met up with the head of the auror department and that was when the department of Intelligence among Unusual Rights was created. So that muggles could be prosecuted under Wizarding law but still remain in the muggle world."

Scorpius took a sip of the water in front of him "That's quite a name,"

"It's quite a job," Harper stated. "Basically everyone in the department has either a cousin or sibling who was born a Wizard to a muggle family, we also have our fair share of Squibs too. Just like Wizards the ministry keeps our names on the file and when were about eighteen they observe us to see if we would make a good match for the department, if they think you would be a good fit then they approach you. If we choose to join the ranks we go through intense schooling on all things magic, we learn what certain spells do and histories of the world."

"Why not approach everyone there honestly can't be that many of you?" Scorpius asked.

"That's the thing, if they approached every muggle who had knowledge of magic then word would get around through the Wizarding community and dark wizards would kill every muggle they came in contact with. No one knows about us, except heads of the auror departments and if we choose certain aurors."

Harper trailed off a moment. Rose noticed the distant look in his eyes as he gave a regretful smile. "My wife doesn't even know what I do," he looked them both in the eye with a sad expression "She thinks that I walked out on her and our son a year ago," Shaking his head of the thought Harper pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and laid it on the greasy table.

"I bet your wondering why the F.B.I. is involved to begin with?" He said unfolding the paper.

"That was going to be my next question." Scorpius commented following the edges of the paper that Harper continued to unfold.

"About a year ago Clark approached me, hadn't heard from my no good brother for years and suddenly he shows up on my door step trying to recruit me for this new henchmen job. I originally told him no, figuring that he was up to no good and I would let the aurors take care of it." Harper's fingers began to trace the lines of the paper.

Rose recognized it as the map that had the red flashes of light on it. "That was until I went to work the next day and realized that everyone in the office had been approached by man with a description that sounded a whole lot like Clark's, and he was going on and on about how we could be just as good as our siblings, how we could have magic like them and they would hold nothing over us anymore. After that we knew we had to infiltrate this group and seeing as how close I was to Clark and the Warwick psycho twins I was chosen to go undercover."

"What is the connection between you and Warwick anyways?" Scorpius knew just about everything so he couldn't place Harper just yet.

"I thought you two would have already figured this out, we're cousins." He said smoothly "His muggle born father is my mother's brother. Clark was his first henchman after he left Angelica in Azkaban."

Rose interrupted him quickly not seeming to notice that Scorpius had asked a question her mind in another place. "You mean he is recruiting…"

"Siblings of muggle born's," Harper nodded.

"But why?" she practically whispered.

"Think about it?" Scorpius said coming to the conclusion much faster than Rose "They would be easy to recruit most of them feeling slightly inferior to their siblings abilities and if Clark and Alexander constantly reminded them of their inferiority then they could basically willing talk them into joining ranks with them, convincing the muggles that they are as strong as their siblings."

"If that was the case then why not go after every single muggle, why only the siblings?" Rose asked.

"Two reasons," Harper said "The first being that most of us have bruised egos to begin with, I can't count how many time Clark would beat the crap out of me using his wand. Growing up I was his unofficial punching bag and he never took any pity on me."

Rose nodded remember what Matt had told her about how the Wizarding children in America had the trace taken off of them for a couple of hour each day because of their awkward schooling arrangement. That way they could go home and practice some of their homework taught from the lessons that day. "What's the second," she spoke quickly.

"Bloodline," Scorpius said suddenly before Harper got the chance to respond.

Harper almost laughed "Exactly,"

"What do you mean bloodlines?" Rose confused how Scorpius could know about something like that.

"There's a theory that muggles who have Wizarding children must carry a gene somewhere in their bloodline, making them more accepting of magic if they were ever to be exposed to it, the same would go for their siblings I would assume." He turned away from Rose and gave Harper a reassuring glance.

"Warwick is offering to the siblings the chance to use magic. Those magical artifacts that we're stealing are each being dispersed among us," Harper reached into his pocket pulling out a golden cube no bigger than a dice, with black etchings around it. "They're not as good as wands but they do give us slight power not enough to make us lethal but it can make us dangerous."

"And he keeps them coming back with the craving for more," Scorpius said more to herself.

"So that's his plan to create an army of muggles with power?" Rose couldn't help but have a slight skeptical tone in her voice.

"Oh believe me he's already created the army, has over two hundred followers and that's not counting the wizard numbers he has gained. His army could take out the ministry when he decides to make his move." Harper clasped his hand around the cube and shoved it in his pocket.

"When is he planning on striking them?"

"Tonight," Harper pointed to the map, "See the red dots, they represent individual meeting points for everyone, every time one lights up another follower has checked in at the destination, when they all arrive then they are to travel together to Warwick and at midnight tonight they will have enough power in a confined space to be able to create a portal which will take them all to just outside the ministry headquarters in London."

"He won't get past the guards that surround the ministry." Scorpius had a hard tone in voice.

Harper shook his head again "Tell me something if you were a wizard guard what would you think about a simple muggle stopping to ask for directions?"

"He's not planning on just taking over the ministry; he is planning on mas murdering hundreds." Rose's voice became soft thinking about how almost her entire family worked in that ministry.

"Well let's just say that with their new found power a lot of these siblings are out for blood and the Witches and Wizards related to them most likely work in the ministry." He had a sly expression on his face.

Rose looked at the flashing dots on the map each one of them like a mocking sign to her. "Scorpius we can't let that portal leave." She whispered her eyes still glued on the dots.

Scorpius looked to her the worry and fear plastered across her face, all he wanted to do was comfort her, swearing that he could hear her heart racing beside him, he instinctively reached for her hand giving it a tight squeeze, pulling her attention to his eyes "We won't," he reassured.

Turning his head quickly to Harper he said in a serious tone "How do we get in?"

Harper had a devilish grin appear across his face, "I was hoping that you would say that." Looking down to his watch he grabbed the map and began to fold it, "There is an ally two blocks down," he pointed it out on one of the still revealed parts of the map, "Met me there at nine o'clock,"

"Why so late?" Scorpius asked.

"Me and Clark aren't scheduled to leave until nine thirty, if I come any earlier Warwick will know that something is up." He stood up and eyed Scorpius up and down taking in the partial suit that he had on a pair dark black paints and a tucked in long sleeved dark blue shirt that buttoned up his chest leaving two open so that it revealed the slightest edge of his white t-shirt that he wore underneath. "Tonight wear something a bit more casual," Harper said turning around to walk away knowing that Clark was going to meet him at the hideout any moment.

Rose noticed that she was holding Scorpius' hand and for a moment let it stay there "We need to let Cornell know what's going on before we go, in case we don't succeed."

Scorpius nodded "Although we have nothing to worry about," he whispered inkling his head to her.

"Why is that?" she said pulling her eyes away from the entwined hands and looking up to Scorpius assuring face.

"Because we don't lose cases," He had almost a light humor in his voice.

Rose couldn't help but give a shaky laugh as she pulled her hand away from Scorpius and rubbed her forehead with it. "No we don't," she agreed dropping her hand going back to her usual determined self.

Shaking her head she was reminded of a thought. "How did you know about the bloodlines?"

Scorpius stood up and stretched his arms "Well when I was fifteen I made a deal with a friend that if she read a book on Quidditch then I would read a book called _Wizzles _that was one of the theories in the book, so I took a guess and was right."

Rose smiled as she laughed to herself, sliding out of the booth she turned and pointed a finger to him "I told you that book would be useful one day," she joked.

Scorpius rolled his eyes as he followed her out of the restaurant "I still think I could have lived my whole life without reading it." Scorpius mocked opening the door for her.

A/N: I know not a tone of Scor/Rose action but the next one but I do think that you get to see a different side of them, although the next chapter will definitely have some moments. I will also be wrapping up the case in the next chapter, so there is that. So please let me know what you think about the case, also witht ht escene between Matt and Carla. Thank you for reading and please review.


	8. Actions With Moments

**Chapter 8**

Rose waited in the ally, her back pushed against the brick wall. Scorpius and her had gone their separate ways not long after lunch. Rose had to admit that earlier for a slight second she had let herself become worried. A small part of her always became worried right before a catch, however this was the first time that one of her cases could potentially connect to her family.

While she waiting she realized that this was probably the first time that she actually preferred to work with Scorpius instead of Matt. Like her Scorpius' parents worked in the ministry and he would do everything in his power to make sure that that portal didn't have a chance in hell of being created. Not that she thought Matt wouldn't put all his effort into this case, because he would have, but Matt could sometimes get caught up in the catch causing him to become a bit rash in his actions. Scorpius on the other hand wouldn't let that happen, he would remain controlled and inline the entire time, not making any move without being thorough and that comforted her.

Her heart pounded as she heard footsteps come up behind her. Turning her face to Scorpius' direction, he was in regular blue jeans, a plain t-shirt with what looked to be a hoodie over it.

"You get my owl?" Scorpius asked not wasting a moment.

Rose nodded "Yeah, I went ahead and notified Cornell to have a team ready for us when we send for them." It was a big catch they were going to need more than two people.

"Good," Scorpius said looking down to the ground, He looked like he was about to ask another question when a figure appeared in the ally walking towards them. "I understand," a voice said into his hand.

Coming into a clearer view Rose saw Harper's figure as he nodded his head, pulling his hand away he snapped a phone shut and gave a sarcastic smile, "My boss," he said not needing to give any more explanation.

Meeting the two aurors in front of him he said "So you two know what you are going to do?"

Both Rose and Scorpius shook their heads. Pulling out her wand "I'm going to use a defusing charm to contain the magic in the artifacts long enough…"

Scorpius finished "For me to catch Warwick, we have other aurors coming in the help with the rest of the catch. All we need is a…"

"Destination," Harper said "Got it." Pulling out some objects from his backpack he handed Scorpius an old baseball hat and a flask of something.

Taking one sniff of the flask Scorpius turned his nose at the stench giving Harper a look that could only say _you could have warned me._ "Unfortunately Clark won't be able to make it tonight, not that anyone would notice," Harper said with a mischievous grin.

"How in the hell did you get a hold of polyjuice potion?" Scorpius asked pulling what looked to be a spare piece of hair off of the baseball hat, shaking his finger he tossed the lint aside.

"Stole it on a heist a few months ago, figured that it would come in handy and seeing as how I was right I don't feel the slightest bit guilty about."

Picking up on his slight struggle Rose went to Scorpius to help him search finding one single strand of hair that was stuck between the fabrics of the hat as if it were a needle. Placing a cool hand on Scorpius' to get him to stop moving she plucked the hair out and held it in front of his face, "Thanks," He said as she gave a silent nod and dropped the hair into the flask.

Taking a swig Scorpius nearly choked on the taste while his muscles started to slowly contract, "Are you sure Clark won't come interrupting?" he heard Rose ask as he felt his clothes become the slightest bit looser on him, and his hair grow slightly to the annoying length it was when he was in school.

"Trust me he's out." Harper said pulling a folded up paper and handing it to Rose.

"We'll send aurors to pick him up when were done," Rose commented turning to Scorpius. It was weird seeing him as someone else and she had to admit that she wasn't a fan of not having his eyes there to comfort her. Luckily Scorpius and Clark were roughly the same height the only major flaw was that his clothes were hanging slightly looser, although Harper didn't seem to notice.

"That," Harper said to Rose forcing her to turn back to face him "Is an underground map of Alexander's lair, I have been piecing it together for months." Looking down to the map she noticed how it looked to be a system of tunnels that all led to one central location, however the tunnels itself seemed to interweaving in and around each other. Harper waited until he Rose gave him her attention "Me and Scorpius have to go together but if you follow the route that I outlined on that you will be able to take a back way into Warwick's hiding place without being noticed."

Even with Clark's face Rose could see the concern that Scorpius had about splitting up, although he tried to hide it. Rose shared the same concern but logically it was the only choice they had if they were going to get near Warwick and at the same time defuse the portal so reluctantly she gave an understanding nod and said "How do we get in?"

(Line Break)

* * *

Rose was careful not to make any noise as she continued down the dark tunnel. The light from her wand showing the small signs of wizardry that had occurred throughout the ground, for starters the walls seemed to be held up by some sort of charm and as she walked further away from the entrance, ladders started to appear on the wall each leading to a door that was about midway up the rock similar to the one that her, Harper, and Scorpius had entered through.

Harper has said to give them five minutes before she called for the other aurors, he also mentioned that anyone wearing a baseball cap was a part of his team so to keep a look out.

Rose had waited exactly five minutes before sending sparks into the air that would have resembled fireworks to any muggle. Seeing the first person from her office arrive, she left the map which she had already memorized and instructions on what the plan was telling them, to wait for her cue before they came.

The tunnels itself was rather impressive it seemed as if Warwick had managed to create a sort of underground path beneath the city and the sewage system, one that only magic could successfully do.

Hearing footsteps not far from behind her she quickly ducked into a tight cavern, covering her mouth so that the person wouldn't hear her breathing as they walked by. She must be getting close to the center, Harper had mentioned that there would be an increase in guards as she got closer to the center. Almost on cue she began to make the slightest sound of voices coming from the edge of the tunnel. Listening carefully she waited to see if another guard was coming toward her. Releasing a tight breath she began to walk again following the chattering voices.

* * *

Scorpius kept his eyes straight but not focused on anything in particular as he walked into the large room. Harper had become stiff and rigid now as he lowered his eyes to the ground needing no guidance on where he was going. "Nice of you to join us," Alexander Warwick said although it was in his sisters voice. Looking around Scorpius noticed how he and Harper seemed to be standing on an elevated rock that was similar to a stage.

In the center of the room there were three wizards who stood in a triangle shape each with their wands held out, green rays extending from the tips creating what looked to be like a pyramid. Around the wizards were hundreds of people who circled around holding one another's hands with their eyes closed and heads bent.

"Did you hear what I said Clark?" Scorpius felt as Harper jabbed him in the arm pulling his attention to the person in front of him. Even though it was Alexander, Scorpius noticed how Angelica had the same eyes as her brother, eyes that seemed to bore into someone skin and read their every thought almost instantaneously.

This was the moment that Scorpius was worried about, yes he looked like Clark, but would Warwick believe that he was Clark, slowly he shook his head no and said "Impressed."

Warwick studied him a bit longer before he said "It is impressive isn't it, but then again I am an impressive person." Turning around Warwick looked around the room, admiring his work.

Warwick looked to the side to see that Harper was far enough away, before he leaned into Scorpius' ear and whispered "Did you get a chance to check into his background?" he motioned his head slightly toward Harper.

Scorpius remained silent not sure what to say so he gave a slight shrug which could have been a yes or a no. Warwick released a breath, "And is he with us?"

Thinking quickly Scorpius said "He knows where his loyalties lie."

Warwick remained still as contemplating something in his head, "If everything doesn't go as planned tonight my rage starts with him," He warned.

Giving a simple nod Scorpius waited as a group of Wizards came up behind them, one of them saying "Miss me?" Angelica's face got a sly smirk as it turned around to see the body of Alexander in front of her. Walking over to it she wrapped her arms around his body in a tight embrace, which to Scorpius seemed a bit too friendly for the average brother and sister.

"It was cleaver of you brother to send that letter enlaced with a ghosting charm, the fools still don't even know that I walked right out in plain sight." Angelica said from her own body.

Alexander smirked "Only the best for my sister."

Scorpius walked closer to Harper and released a deep sight "You know he suspects you," he mumbled.

Harper didn't speak although Scorpius could see his jaw become tight and rigid. Harper looked down to his watch "Well whatever he suspects he is running out of time to do something about it."

Scorpius didn't respond as his eyes started to scan the room for Rose.

* * *

Rose could see why Harper had given her the route that he did, she was standing in a tunnel that was above the center of the room, giving her sight to just about everything.

The charms that she was performing were long and complex, they needed her absolute undivided attention to work, and at the current moment she felt as if she had done them a hundred times. The way a diffusion charm worked was through a series of several spells that would react to one master spell, and right now Rose was still in the setting up process.

She had sectioned the room off into parts, attempting to do a charm on such a large group would have been impossible. So slowly she performed a series of spells on each section and hoped that they worked. Feeling the sweat beading up around her head she mumbled "They better work," then waving her wand towards another group keeping her eyes so focused on them that she could feel them burning.

Timing was the key, taking a breath Rose looked down to her watch as it came up to eleven fifty. With such a large group the diffusing charm would only last for about five minutes at best. Popping her head out of the tunnel she looked around the room for Scorpius. Looking down she saw his hat almost directly beneath her. Breathing she let her body relax at his presence, Only to be shocked when he turned his head to her and winked with a grin.

Rose couldn't help but smile at the fact that he could still sense her stare, shaking her head she pointed to the three wizards in the middle of the room. Scorpius only nodded knowing what she was thinking.

"You ready?" she mouthed. Scorpius nodded again, leaning in closer to Harper who had his eyes on his own team members, he gave a nod that it was almost time.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Alexander Warwick said pulling himself away from another group of people that Rose was sure were all Wizards. "It's time," He said raising his wand.

"Now," she yelled releasing the master spell of the diffusion charm, grasping Warwick's attention momentarily.

"Expelliarmus," Scorpius said un-arming Warwick of his wand, feeling as his body began to go back to normal.

Warwick gave one look of recognition to Scorpius before he yelled "Get him,"

Waving her wand one last time nearly two dozen aurors apparated into the cave and everything became chaos.

* * *

Sparks flew around the cave as Wizards fought against Wizards, muggles fought against the F.B.I. and other Wizards.

Even though Scorpius was blocking spells he kept his eyes on Warwick the entire time, as he rushed through the crowd to the closest exit. Whipping his wand around he manipulated the green rays of light from the cent to hit the wall of the cave that Warwick was heading towards blocking off his exit.

Releasing the lights the three Wizards fell to the ground out of their trance and looked around the messy room in confusion.

Rose jumped down from the overhead platform that she was on landing in a cat like position. Looking up a woman was running towards her with a rabid expression. Rose raised her eyebrows with complete calmness as she became excited for the fight.

Standing up as the woman came close to her Rose swung her hand back and knocked the women in the face and onto the floor. Staring at the women for a moment; it would have been easier to have just stunned her but honestly where was the fun in that?

Looking around Rose would have loved to stay and fight as many people as she could to help her other aurors, but that wasn't her mission. Her Mission was Warwick and he had to come first.

Turning her head she watched as Alexander ran from the exit that had been barricaded with rocks and to the one not far beside it. Pushing one of his Wizard followers out of the way he grabbed the man's wand and shot at Scorpius, who was forced to lean against a wall to avoid the spell, allowing Warwick to leave the main area.

Rose watched as Scorpius followed Warwick out of the room, prepared to follow them she felt her body suddenly flailing in the air towards a wall. Searching for the source of the spell she fired directly in front of her seeing Angelica Warwick coming directly towards her with revenge in her sights.

"Fuck," Rose mumbled jumping into a dueling stance as Angelica licked her razor sharp teeth in front of her.

"It's been so long," Angelica sneered casting a spell that barely missed Rose's face as the rocks on the wall exploded around her.

Dodging her spell Rose ducked and sent a gust of air so strong towards Angelica that it knocked her to the ground. "Not long enough." She stated sending another spell at the woman that covered her eyes in a thick sticky black coating.

Running to the same exit that Scorpius and Alexander ran out of everything became eerily quiet in the dark space. Suddenly green sparks flew over head as she heard Scorpius yell "Rose get down,"

Realizing that she had just entered into the middle of a cross fire she felt as Scorpius' strong arms wrapped around her back as he led her behind a large rock, while simultaneously throwing a spell out that collided with Alexander's.

"Seriously?" Scorpius said giving Rose a wide eyed expression while taking a quick breath before turning around and blasting a large wave of electricity out of his wand into the center of the room.

Rose only shrugged as she turned around and sent sparks from her own wand, which hit a rock close to Alexander because she saw his shadow move. "How long do you think he can last for?"

"Not sure," He answered wiping sweat from his forehead. "I do know that this is not working," He motioned to the blue sparks that just hit the rock the wall above them.

Covering her head with her hand she looked to Scorpius "And what exactly do you suggest? That you go out into the middle of it?" she said sarcastically, while waving her wand out into the open again.

"That's exactly what I am suggesting." He said turning to move out from behind the rock.

Outstretching her hand she forcefully grabbed ahold of his shirt and pulled him back "Are you crazy, I'm not letting you go out there."

"Listen if I go out there it will take him off guard and I will be close enough to actually get him." He reasoned. Rose still held a tight grip on to his shirt.

"No," she shook her head while large white sparks flew above their heads lighting up the room so that Scorpius was able to see her eyes for a moment. A look of concern was drenched on her face and he looked away from him. "You could get hit," she argued.

Scorpius was silent as he raised his arm to shoot another round of spells to Warwick.

Looking as if he was going to give into her plea she loosened her grip on him, it wasn't a split second later that an apologetic look appeared on his face and he leaned into her ear and whispered an "I'm sorry," just before quickly turning around and rolling out from behind the rock heading straight for the side of the room that Warwick was on.

"Scorpius," she screeched her voice covered in rage.

Blocking one spell after another Scorpius bolted straight for Warwick seeing the edge of his wand rising above the rock and sparks flying out above him. Hitting the middles of Warwick rock Scorpius watched as the pieces flew apart as Alexander's face had a stunned expression form across it.

Rose watched from behind her rock, her body completely still as Scorpius flicked his wand stunning Warwick, but not before Alexander had the chance to shoot one last spell directly at Scorpius' chest causing both men to fall to the ground motionless.

The only sound to be heard was of Rose's breathing.

* * *

Rose sat in the waiting room of the muggle hospital with a Wizarding wing in it. There was a hospital for just Wizards but with all the muggles that were involved it made more sense to come to this one.

Taking slow breathes Rose looked down to the ground alone with her thoughts. She wasn't sure what exactly to think or do so she just waited. Never in her life had her mind been as blank as it was now.

Hearing the loud booming voice of Cornell coming from down the hall she stood up anxiously to great him. The man had an odd expression on his face that almost resembled a smile. "I tell you Weasley that partner of yours is one impressive person, I just got done congratulating him on his work which I guess the same goes for you, good job."

Rose mumbled a thanks her mind confused "I must say that is one of the more impressive catches that I have heard about. The other aurors that were there seem to be pretty taken with him," It took a lot of effort for Rose to listen to the words that Cornell was speaking "Obviously you were the only one who saw what happened with Warwick but they are telling me that the spells he used when he was in the main room were extremely difficult and complicated and he used them with little to no concentration."

Rose gave a curt nod of her head as she crossed her arms "So I'm assuming that he is alright then," her voice toneless.

Cornell seemed to be so caught up in the details of the story that he seems slightly shocked when he remembered that they were standing in the middle of a hospital "Oh he's fine, few bruises, probably won't feel too great in the morning." Cornell paused a moment before asking his eyes still in amazement "Did he really run into the battle like that without a single hesitation?"

"Uh yeah," Rose said trying to think of her next words "May I speak to him now?" she asked curiously.

Cornell shrugged "I'm not sure why you wouldn't be able to,"

Rose didn't give Cornell another chance to ask a question, walking past him and straight ahead to Scorpius' room. Slamming the door shut behind her she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes to him.

Scorpius sat on the edge of a bed his shirt lying beside him and his arm extended out in front of him as he rolled his shoulder in tiny circles. Lifting his eyes to Rose he saw by her expression that she was mad about something "I get the feeling that you're not here to congratulate me?" he said cracking his neck.

"You're feeling would be right," She had a dark tone in her voice warning him to not mess with her.

"Come on Rose there was no other option and you know it," Scorpius argued with her.

Rose vigorously shook her head marching towards him "We could have worn him down it would have taken a while but it would have given the same result and you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

He was becoming just as angry as she was. He snatched his shirt from beside him and yanked it over his head. This was ridiculous he had done his job what more did she want from him. Yelling he said "Bloody hell Rose I didn't realize that I meant so fucking much to you."

"Well you do," she shouted back into his face.

There was a long moment of silence as they both fumed each boring into one another's eyes. Scorpius' expression was like stone as he released a long exaggerated sigh. Scorpius saw the fear on her face, he had worried her, more than he thought his action would have done.

Rose tore her eyes away from him she didn't come in here to start a fight, she just wanted to make sure that he was fine. Rubbing the temple of her head with her fingers she said softly "You know you mean something to me."

"I know," he spoke his own voice in a calming tone.

Focusing her eyes on the bare white of the walls she felt as his hand was on her waist, his finger as it snaked through one of the belt loops of her pants, tugging her legs closer towards him.

Rose's body went rigged as she felt Scorpius hand rise to her chin turning her face sideways. "You're cut," he said tucking some of her hair behind her ear, revealing a red line that was near the hairline of her head.

Tracing his finger down it she said "I'll heal it when I get home."

Pressing his hand to her cheek Scorpius waited for her to say something more, sensing that there was more on her mind. After several moments she breathed "You are not allowed to scare me like that."

Scorpius didn't say anything instead he saw a single tear escape from her eye, slowly skimming his fingers to follow it's track as it slid to the ground. She remained motionless as she felt him touch her so tenderly, almost like she was in shock. Her heart slamming against her chest as he slowly began to pull her forehead to his.

Rose was unnaturally still as she felt her insides raging with her, wanting to give in; tearing at her muscles to move, only one small logical part of her head was urging her against it. Holding off for as long as she could she sighed relinquishing her fight. Raising her arms up she wrapped them around his neck letting her fingers tie into the short strands of his hair. Closing her eyes her heart raced as she felt the heaviness of his hand on the back of her head, holding her in place. The corner of her bottom lip was pressed to his and if either one of them were to make the slightest movement then they would have kissed.

But they didn't. They both remained still as statues taking in one another's warm breaths. Her entire body shivered to its core. To anyone that walked in it would have looked like they were two people who were desperately in love, but in that moment that's what they were.

Scorpius shook his head, his breathing becoming unnaturally unsteady. Inclining his neck back, he made a noise that was a mix between a gasp and a moan. His bottom lip dragged along her cheek listening as Rose's breath caught. Cupping her face with both his hands he raised his face slightly so that he could meet her closed eyes. "Look at me," he whispered.

"I can't," Her voice heavy and raw.

Scorpius raised one of his hands skimming it along her cheek, still clutching his hold on her tightly for fear that she might try to move, "Please Rose,"

He watched as she struggled against him, her forehead pressuring harder against his. He felt as one of her hands moved down the back of his head her fingers traveling through the strands of his hair, sending chills through him, her movement stopping when her palm reached his neck firmly pressing against it unwilling to loosen its grip.

Taking one long breath her eyes slowly began to open and he saw her. He saw the girl from the forest six years ago, the girl who had let him in and vowed to always love him. For a spilt second he saw his Rose, unmasked and he loved her just as much as before. "This isn't fair." Scorpius struggled to say in a rugged voice, quickly catching her forehead with his lips.

"I know," her breaths were deep and quivering as she bit down on her bottom lip hard enough that she thought it might bleed, in order to hold back her screams of agony.

He could feel her, the uneasiness of her breathing, the same pain that he was experiencing. She stood there taking him in, his breathing, his heat, everything until she couldn't take it anymore. Gasping she pulled her head away from him and went towards the direction of the door, "Get your stuff I'll meet you in the lobby," she said not looking back to him.

Scorpius closed his eyes in despair as he felt her rip away from him. It took only a second for her to come back to him and even less time for her disappear.

Rose ran to get out of the room, propping herself against the wall outside while taking quick recomposing breaths. Shutting her eyes she pushed back the part of her that was his, the part of her that made her weak and vulnerable, the part of her that had continued to love him no matter what. She always loved him, that was the one promise that she kept, but none of that mattered all that mattered was that she regain her control.

Slamming her fist against the wall she opened her eyes feeling as her heart slowed and her breathing became steadier. Suddenly the door opened beside her and Scorpius emerged with his jacket in his hands "You ready?" he asked as if nothing had happened.

"Umm hum," she nodded pushing herself off the wall and leading the way out of the hospital.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading I really hope that you liked it along with the little moment at the end. Please let me know what you think.


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